The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told - Acting Edition by Paul Rudnick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Review: The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told - Acting Edition
Review: I Hate Hamlet
I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ghost stories are about real estate, and this is a fabulous apartment, formerly home to John Barrymore who shows up bigger than life and twice as unnatural. Here's why Rudnick is so great: he's putting up the pull of TV series money against the prestige of Shakespeare in the Park and at no time does he assume that one is innately superior. Rather than go with the cliché about the personal connection between audience and stage actor, he gives us two strangers connecting through a commercial jingle. He evokes Noel Coward and The Greatest American Hero, albeit in separate acts. It's funny but kid. And there are swords. I love a sword fight.
Library copy
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Sunday, January 29, 2023
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Review: The Tapestry Cats
The Tapestry Cats by Ann Turnbull
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow, I kind of can't believe I never wrote any sort of review of this. It's the kind of book that makes the woman in the children's department come up to you (if you like kids' books at all) and say "Have you seen this yet?" Total love at first sight. I don't know, maybe boys wouldn't squee so much because it's a princess, her very bossy mother the queen, a fairy godmother, and a maid. Or maybe any child who feels like they aren't being heard by a parent could relate. We all love it, because it has cats. And also, because the art makes you keep trying to touch the page, to feel the texture you can see.
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Review: Dog Blue
Dog Blue by Polly Dunbar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
#73 in my 365 Kids Books challenge. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf.
Starting a binge on Polly Dunbar, because simple and lovely. Good dog.
Library copy
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Monday, January 23, 2023
Review: I'll Take It
I'll Take It by Paul Rudnick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
1989, January 1
Such a weird book, and such a delight. The plot is just a hanger for the interactions between the mother and son, the sisters, the aunts and the nephew. I dearly love these sisters, and their crazy trip to take in the autumn foliage of Vermont.
***
2014, August 26
All these years later I still adore it just as much. Joe's love for these three women is complete and accepting and generous. And the contrast between the middle-class suburban working women and the fantastically wealthy WASPs of Maine slays me.
Personal copy
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Saturday, January 21, 2023
Review: I'm Glad My Mom Died
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
19 January, 2023
Not finished yet, but I am also glad McCurdy's mom died. Also, it troubles me that parents can pocket 90% percent of a child's earnings. Either 100% goes into trust or let 's admit that child actors (models, athletes, etc." are being trafficked by their parents for our entertainment. How is it the agent should earn more than the child who has lost an educatio, their health, and less tangible qualities of childhood, that they have no legal capacity to sign away. I would also have the fund gradually increase responsibility? Did I miss the memo that said despite copious evidence to the contrary, we're going to base this on an idealizedzed view of the sanctity of parenthoods as long as the paren'ts acting is possible.
And also, the trust should n be broken unless the minor is emancipated or chooses to pursue education/ minimal traininf0, cng Erin is. If my idea is bad or wose....
Epiphany du jure: 1 weeks we found
Also, the 18 to 21 one
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Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Review: Winterkeep
Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
28 February, 2021
First, great story. Some mystery, some romance, some swashbuckling, some boarding-school story, but as if real sixteen -year-olds were in attendance, not the bizarre everyone -pair-off at eleven but no one actually has sex weirdness of Harry Potter, environmental concerns, and lots of other stuff, plus that's not all. There's a generous effort at modeling better options, whether it be recovering from trauma, or deciding what to be when you grow up, to not....
***
27 December 2022
Now that I start Seasparrow without re-reading them all again, I rather wish I had finished writing this up.
Library copy
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Sunday, January 15, 2023
Review: Anatole
Anatole by Eve Titus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My brother owned Anatole, so I didn't get to read it a dozen times. Oh, how I long to look at it again.
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Review: Hat Tricks
Hat Tricks by Satoshi Kitamura
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
#52 in my 365 Kids Books challenge and multi-year effort to get Goodreads to fix the Top Readers, etc. lists. For a fuller explanation see my review for 101 Amazing Facts about Australia You can see all the books on their own shelf It seems unlikely that I will actually achieve 365 reviews of kids books this year, but I don't want to stop.
Another artist with a very simple, spare visual style, but warm. I like the way the story builds and resolves. Shout out to "brava," a tragically underutilized word. And while the unnecessarily gendering of things is my bête noir, if one is borrowing from a language which has grammatical gender, probably one should make sure the chosen word matches the chosen pronouns.
Special thanks to the library for their clever window display with directions to knock on the glass if you see something you like and then call the provided number and the librarian sitting near the window will check the book out to you and leave it on shelf right over there. Kitamura was new to me and I very happy introduction this was.
Library copy, obvs.
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Review: Good Night, Gorilla
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of the best board books ever. If you know someone who is going to have a baby, please be sure they have a copy of this one. On the basis of this book alone Rathmann should have received a MacArthur grant.
***
My opinion hasn't gone down at all. On the contrary, it has only gone up. It's still a brilliant book.
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Saturday, January 14, 2023
Friday, January 13, 2023
Review: Bitterblue
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
February 18, 2013
Sometimes you can actually see an author getting better, from one book to the next. I enjoyed the previous Graceling books enormously, but neither of them had the incredible depth of this one. Here Cashore takes the time and effort to improve upon the elements that were good in her other books, and to correct those faults which have since been raised with them.
How do you lead a nation that has been through a horrific reign? Are truth and reconciliation possible? Advisable? These are the sorts of questions Bitterblue, a young queen, is feeling her way through. Because this series, and my other recent favorites The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Thief, and Finnikin of the Rock, are collectively devoted to finding not just a way to right obvious wrongs, but also to consider what justice is, they are as works of fantasy richer and more relevant. Obviously, a reader doesn't have to mull over the big questions, you can just read for the skullduggery, the back-stabbings, the derring-do, and the romance. But if you're so inclined these can launch you into not just thinking of ways to improve the world, but even on to practical plans for implementation.
I'm fascinated by this shift from fantasy that looks back at a supposed golden age to one that tries to create a golden age; one that is inclusive, progressive, and respectful. These are books that leave me hopeful, not because of a happy ending tacked on, but because the characters are actively striving to create one. That's cool. And there's an amazing library with a viciously independent cat and a librarian named after Lord Peter Wimsey, and magical talents, and unusually colored eyes, just so you know it's not all serious.
One of the best books I'll read this year, I expect. I dearly look forward to whatever Cashore writes next.
Library copy.
***
June 26, 2015
Yes, all that.
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Thursday, January 12, 2023
Review: Fire
Fire by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
July 19, 2010
I believe I liked this even more than Graceling. More moral questioning, more ambiguity, although less fighting.
***
A week after finishing it, I'm still impressed by Cashore's decision to write a companion volume, rather than a sequel. I enjoy sequels, really, up until number 10 or so usually, so it's not a general aversion. But the world of Graceling was rich enough to support lots of very different stories, and this one was good. Ambiguous, with hints of noir, although not everyone dies, and a bawdy humor, too. It's not Hamlet and it isn't at all pretentious, but it's got far more depth than one might suppose at first glance.
***
June 19, 2015
This one, too, I enjoyed even more on re-read. For one thing, I better understood where it fit in the overall arc. For another, I liked how different it was. A huge portion of the book is devoted to the protagonist making friends, an important part of traditional fantasy, but one that doesn't usually include women on either side.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Review: Fire
Fire by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
July 19, 2010
I believe I liked this even more than Graceling. More moral questioning, more ambiguity, although less fighting.
***
A week after finishing it, I'm still impressed by Cashore's decision to write a companion volume, rather than a sequel. I enjoy sequels, really, up until number 10 or so usually, so it's not a general aversion. But the world of Graceling was rich enough to support lots of very different stories, and this one was good. Ambiguous, with hints of noir, although not everyone dies, and a bawdy humor, too. It's not Hamlet and it isn't at all pretentious, but it's got far more depth than one might suppose at first glance.
***
June 19, 2015
This one, too, I enjoyed even more on re-read. For one thing, I better understood where it fit in the overall arc. For another, I liked how different it was. A huge portion of the book is devoted to the protagonist making friends, an important part of traditional fantasy, but one that doesn't usually include women on either side.
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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.
Library copy
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Saturday, January 07, 2023
Review: One Cool Friend
One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Awwww! I've been a David Small fan for quite a while, now I'll have to add Toni Buzzeo to my list. Reminiscent of Mr. Popper's Penguins in the best way, I would expect this to be popular with any kid who dreams of having an unusual pet. I was thoroughly enchanted, because Penguin! but the whole thing Buzzeo and Small get that urban legend feel just right: it's too perfect to be real, and yet, it's believable.
I don't usually talk much about the art, but I really like the color palettes for Elliot and his dad, and the different feel of their styles. These are not densely packed illustrations, there's a lot of white space, and a cool, jazz-like mood. Elliot's dad reminded me of the father in The Teddy Bear Habit, although I'm not sure why: the benign neglect, maybe?
I'll have to read it again soon, since I won't add a book to my Beloved shelf until I've read it twice, at least. This one is going to hold up.
Library copy.
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Friday, January 06, 2023
Sunday, January 01, 2023
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