Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero by E. Lockhart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Saturday, April 30, 2022
Review: The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man
The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'd have liked Awesome Man more, I'm sure, had I never read Traction Man Is Here! or Traction Man Meets Turbo Dog. The art is perfect for the tone; I just happened to fall in love with a similar book before.
Library copy.
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Review: Max Cleans Up
Max Cleans Up by Rosemary Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Poor Ruby, forced to try and raise Max in the absence of their parents. This is why bossy older siblings are bossy. It is also very funny. Max and Ruby are two of my favorite fictional creations.
Library copy.
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Thursday, April 28, 2022
Review: Fuzzy Nation
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
2011, June 14
Used to be Asimov wrote mysteries. He enjoyed crafting little puzzles set on other worlds that could only be solved by considering conditions on those planets. The first Robot books were all mysteries. Scalzi brings that kind of plotting to his re-imagining of Little Fuzzy. The result is entertaining as hell. Corporate machinations, legal maneuvering, the suppositions and discoveries of scientists, and the fuzzys who are unspeakably cute and clever cats. He's thrown in humor and pathos and the result is so very satisfying.
Now I'm reading the Piper original, because I must have more. I recommend it to anyone who thinks they don't like science fiction.
Library copy
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Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Review: Fuzzy Nation
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
2011, June 14
Used to be Asimov wrote mysteries. He enjoyed crafting little puzzles set on other worlds that could only be solved by considering conditions on those planets. The first Robot books were all mysteries. Scalzi brings that kind of plotting to his re-imagining of Little Fuzzy. The result is entertaining as hell. Corporate machinations, legal maneuvering, the suppositions and discoveries of scientists, and the fuzzys who are unspeakably cute and clever cats. He's thrown in humor and pathos and the result is so very satisfying.
Now I'm reading the Piper original, because I must have more. I recommend it to anyone who thinks they don't like science fiction.
Library copy
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Monday, April 25, 2022
Sunday, April 24, 2022
Review: The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism
The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jennifer Gunter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Jen Gunter on Twitter is my hero!
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Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Review: Dark Remedy: The Impact Of Thalidomide And Its Revival As A Vital Medicine
Dark Remedy: The Impact Of Thalidomide And Its Revival As A Vital Medicine by Trent D. Stephens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
April 18, 2022. 97 of 228 pages
Update here because I am too damn wordy for the actual update box.
I love a compelling story of a medical and legal conundrum, like The Day of St. Anthony's Fire. I wonder if any country has a good response team established to deal with catastrophes like this that aren't about property. As far as I know there isn't anything in place in the US's insane monster of a "medical system." There would be investigations, but nothing to cover the immediate medical and social services assistance, as far as I know. And Oxycontin has shown us that even when a source of funding is finally found in lawsuits, there is little likelihood of timely care to those harmed, or even to non-specific treatment such as substance abuse clinics. Did any tobacco-settlement money go to providing treatment for chronic breathing disorders or lung cancer? It isn't as if we didn't know that more disasters like this will occur, and that victims won't necessarily be in close proximity. If anyone can recommend a good source for what kind of treatment, if any, has been provided to the Flint lead-poisoning victims, I would be grateful.
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Monday, April 18, 2022
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Review: The Day of St. Anthony's Fire
The Day of St. Anthony's Fire by John G. Fuller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Heartbreaking and Truly Terrifying.
I was sitting around the supper table with my family discussing theories about the Salem Witch Trials. The ergot theory was put forward, and I dismissed it, largely because of the scale: hundreds of people accused, tortured, and tried over more than a year, but also because the initial accusers would roll around on the floor in seeming fits but immediately recover, and none of them suffered anything like an actual injury during those supposed fits. Then the Spouse mentions that French town, you know...
I did not know. I had never previously heard of the book nor the incident it describes in well-researched, well-documented, and well-communicated detail. In August of 1951 some three hundred people in and around Pont-Saint-Esprit in Provence, France were poisoned. It was a horrible accident that killed five people,hospitalized more than a hundred, and caused many to suffer lasting debilitation.
As a medical mystery, it is enthralling. All the local GPs as well as the large number of treating physicians from the nearest largest cities agreed they were seeing an event out of history a mass poisoning due to ergot. They had to look in history books to get treatment ideas.
Then there's the legal mystery: who are what will be blamed and have to pay? The investigators had quickly found the suspect flour, but then there were years of examining the evidence. The police couldn't accept the ergot theory because the volatile alkaloids disappeared too quickly and too completely. There was literally no evidence. The legal wrangling that followed lasted a decade.
It's a fascinating book for those interested in medical or historical mysteries. Fuller is thorough in his recounting, but never boring. Since I didn't have Truly Terrifying, I took advantage of that black dust jacket for Paint it Black.
Library copy
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Friday, April 15, 2022
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Review: The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place
The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Shades of Annie's Adventures and The Mysterious Howling
Ridiculous and fun. A group of boarders at a Victorian finishing school conspire to hide the bodies when their headmistress and her brother drop dead suddenly. It's a romp. They solve the mystery and all the girls who are old enough meet proper beaux, and everyone who is still alive in the end lives happily ever after.
There are a few moments when the silly plot and the seriousness of death rub uncomfortably against each other, but mostly it's just a hoot.
Recommended by Natasha and me.
Library copy
***
I enjoyed it even more this second time
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Saturday, April 09, 2022
Monday, April 04, 2022
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