|
Mi tío Atahualpa by Paulo de Carvalho-Neto. It's weird that the author has Wikipedia pages only in Spanish (which I think he mostly wrote in) and Finnish (into which two of his novels were translated), but the former article makes absolutely no mention of his published fiction as far as I can tell. (I'm pretty sure his other translated novel is a big reason why there's a Finnish article on him at all:)  e: Oh, the book is a modern picaresque with political under- and overtones. I think some aspects of the story would be considered problematic nowadays, like how the protagonist cum narrator (an Ecuadorian indian) enthusiastically rapes someone and is somehow too stupid/ignorant to even realize it, or many other things for that matter. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Sep 1, 2022 |
#
?
Sep 1, 2022 13:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 10:01 |
|
|
Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan. The title says it all, but it's a lot less dry than you'd think. It covers everything from the invention of alphabetical order through to the "Index Wars" of the 18th century where indexers would from time to time use their job to make snipes at authors they didn't like. Soft recommend if you have an interest in archival.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2022 14:26
|
|
|
The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture by Orlando Figes. A partially biographical book, it follows the lives of Louis Viardot, his wife Pauline, and her boyfriend Ivan Turgenev in order to show how technological developments shaped a continent wide mass culture in 19th century Europe. What I found particularly interesting was how international copyright shaped so many developments, such as Russia's refusal to join leading to the popularity of Russian novels because they weren't protected. I didn't care so much about the biographical sections, the author was able to convey the personal reality of these changes with smaller vignettes about various historical figures without needing to delve so deeply into their lives.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2022 20:11
|
|
|
Foundryside by Robert Bennett is a cyberpunk novel without the cyber, set in a fantasy world based on Renaissance Italy. In this setting, is something on the order of programming code for reality, enchanting objects to behave in ways contrary to reality, and magic is controlled by corrupt and tyrannical merchant houses that rule the world with an enchanted iron fist. In the shadows of this capitalist hellhole, the best thief in the world - a young woman with a remarkable gift and a mysterious past - takes a high-risk job for the payout of a lifetime that she hopes will turn her life around. Then people begin to die, killed by means that should be impossible, and a thief living in the gutters finds herself caught up in politics and conspiracy that reach into the highest levels of this brutally unequal and oppressive society. Soon the fate of the city, and perhaps more than that, rests on her shoulders and that of her unlikely band of allies: a mad wizard who's grown a conscience, a traumatized war veteran seeking justice, an idealistic scientist who thinks her ivory tower truly can change the world for the better, and more. Foundryside reminds me very much of the Thief games, if anyone's played those, or maybe a Renaissance era Shadowrun. An inventive and interesting system of magic adds spice to a fun -punk romp that has absolutely not forgotten the anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist origins of the genre, and I was absolutely not expecting the protagonist to be a woman of color, or for her to develop a romantic relationship with another woman. I enjoyed this story a lot and I've already gotten the sequels from the library. Starring a gay black woman as the protagonist alone makes this a remarkable book, far less than it was cute and not played for fanservice in the slightest.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2022 19:26
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Foundryside Just finished the trilogy a few weeks ago. Usually, magic-based fiction is not my cup of tea, but as you said, there's an interesting twist on magic in this series.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 00:26
|
|
|
Ada, or Ardor Possibly the most pleasing prose I've ever read. Reading it feels like slipping into a silk robe, pure luxury. But it matches the style with a cheeky intellectual exercise of trying to catch all the sneaky references that Nabokov slipped in. I'm sure I only caught a fraction but each one brought a smirk to my face. Its also quite intellectually and morally interesting, a highlight of which is the rumination on Augustinian time, a concept that feels like it's been chasing me since I first read Mr.Hippos account of years ago, near the end Highly recommended if you can deal with the subject matter
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2022 20:59
|
|
|
Shorefall by Robert Bennett is the sequel to Foundryside, and a huge step down in ways that were sadly very predictable. Once I realized the books were urban fantasy, just set in a fantastical early modern period, it all made unfortunate sense: Shorefall fell into all the usual problems of sequels in the genre. The first book is small scale, gritty, full of conspiracy and politics and very human twists and turns that the protagonist has to outwit through her guile, luck, and friends. Magic informs the story but mostly just works as a plot device. Then the sequel is constant fate of the world stakes, the protagonist is all but forgotten in favor of talking about her - let's be honest - superpowers, the villains are far more extreme and inhuman, and the majority of the book is spent talking about magic and the mechanics thereof rather than the people using it. The LGBT aspect is also a letdown because, well, yes they're girlfriends. And that's about as much as the book describes them. They're just a couple. There hasn't been a word about why the protagonist likes her girlfriend, or what they do as a couple (beyond having sex and going on otherwise not described dates), or what their hopes are that don't deal with the fate of the world. I liked their relationship being low-key in the first book because it fit the pace and plot of the first book, but I was expecting something a little more in the sequel now that they've been a solid couple for six months. And the series is clearly heading for a tragic ending for the two of them. It's a shame to see yet another author fall into the same trap that so many other writers have when writing a sequel.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2022 18:14
|
|
|
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach was a nice way to spend some hours. The things she did cover were quite well presented, but there are two notable topics that I wish the book spent time on - the embalming of Vladimir Lenin and the weirdness of the cryonics movement.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2022 01:53
|
|
|
Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub (audiobook). I'm generally a fan of King's work and a few rumors I heard about this having connective material to the Dark Tower series drew me in but I found this book almost completely unsatisfying. I enjoy a good rambling plodding narrative more than most people, but holy hot drat does nothing really seem to happen for 19 of the 24 hours' run time of this book, and when it does it's basically a cavalcade of deus ex machinas and anticlimaxes. There's a fair amount of characters but maybe two of them have any interesting traits to speak of. Ironically my least favorite part turns out to be one of the ways it connects most with the Dark Tower's style - there's a lot of "Then Bob knew the thing and knew it to be absolutely true because REASONS", which I found a little tiresome in the Dark Tower books, but it fit, since the narrative there is very deeply tied to fate and Roland's relationship to the Tower itself. Here it just felt like exhibit #1 of why Showing, Not Telling is generally a bad idea. It wasn't exactly a painful to consume, but it felt like this was a kind of anti-collaboration where both authors' worst tendencies are on display and they just kind of got in each other's way.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2022 09:54
|
|
|
Locklands by Robert Bennett is the final book of the Foundryside trilogy. An underwhelming conclusion to a series with a very strong first book that had very little to do with the sequels. It's more of the same problems as Shorefall: it's a high urban fantasy story about the purest of good guys fighting an apocalyptic evil and the story is way more interested in the minutia of how magic works than it is in the characters. Bennett is way too into talking about his literally magical utopia and ignoring all the horrifying problems that occurred to me as likely to emerge with how the place is set up. This series has been such a disappointment. :/ A great first book, then the story dropped off a cliff when the series got to the story that Bennett evidently *really* wanted to write.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2022 14:49
|
|
|
Playing catch-up, got distracted. The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Yeah it really is good, drat I’m kicking myself for getting this old before realizing how great of a writer she was. I liked it even better than The Dispossessed which I still liked quite a lot. I think I still love her short stories most of all but this was such a great read. For all the gender & sexuality stuff in which this book was definitely ahead of its time (though not without problems) this is really a book about a powerful platonic love and the kind of sacrifice you’ll make for your goddamn best friend ever. Also, the ice sheet crossing was just intense. Politics, intrigue, adventure, jfc this book’s got it all. Eleven by Patricia Highsmith. 11 short stories by this detective/mystery writer who also wrote, apparently, the first mainstream published novel about a lesbian romance that didn’t end in tragedy (next on my list). I got this because of a dimly remembered story about giant man-eating snails on a remote island, “The Quest For Blank Claverengi,” and this is a great batch of stories from horror to realism (did you know snails have thousands of teeth?). I think my favorites were actually the realistic ones but it was definitely fun finding the snail story I remembered somehow running across when I was just a kid. One Hundred Years Of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. This was my first book by this author and there were definitely some points at which it started to feel like a slog, like maybe we only need 50 or 60 years of solitude, but the conclusion felt deeply rewarding and I could understand then why you needed that kind of scope. Definitely worth it. Probably anything I say about this book will sound dumb to literature people. I just like readin’.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2022 07:09
|
|
|
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Thank God I am done with this book. I've made a concentrated effort this year to read more beyond non-fiction and science-fiction and this book makes me regret my decision. The plot is meandering, the characters are out of central casting, and the plot is subpar. I just couldnt get into this book at all and am glad to be finished with it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2022 03:47
|
|
|
Vienna Circlejerk posted:
Read Mama Grande's Funeral or whatever it's titled in English. E: I mean the collection not just that story. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Sep 19, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2022 08:36
|
|
|
Flew through Carol (aka The Price of Salt) by Patricia Highsmith yesterday afternoon and I did not know until now just how much I needed non-tragic queer romance novels in my life. I thought the prose was a little uneven in the beginning but once the main character and love interest start interacting the prose flows much better. You can tell Highsmith was really writing from her heart. This is definitely not a lesbian pulp novel even though it's from that era; sex is only hinted at or talked about vaguely. 1952, wow! I haven't seen the 2015 film but I'm definitely going to now. And I guess I'm headed off to the romance novels thread... Also forgot to mention Marx: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Singer in my last post. Great quick read for squishy demsoc/socdems like me who lack theory and don't really want to invest time in it but want to at least have some idea what the MLs are talking about. Sums up his thought and contextualizes it with Hegel and general European movements/events of the time. Tries a little too hard to be "even-handed" but doesn't really suffer much for that. I feel now that if I wanted to dig in to Marx I'd have at least a better sense of what I'm getting into. 3D Megadoodoo posted:Read Mama Grande's Funeral or whatever it's titled in English. E: I mean the collection not just that story. English title given on Wikipedia is Big Mama's Funeral but after searching, it looks like it and 2 other volumes were combined into Collected Stories so I'll definitely add that to my list. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2022 12:44
|
|
|
BaseballPCHiker posted:The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. If you're brave enough to dive into another Donna Tartt book, I'll recommend The Secret History, her first and best novel.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2022 19:13
|
|
|
I just finished Negative Space by BR Yeager.  I didn’t love it. I actually might have actively disliked it. But I also plowed through it in five days because I was completely engrossed just the same. It’s really uncomfortable and gross and unsettling. It sort of uses cosmic horror as a backdrop or metaphor for rural teenage angst in dying small town America, and feeling isolated and misunderstood and abandoned by parents and the world at large. So uhhhh I guess that’s maybe not a glowing review? But I definitely couldn’t put it down, so… land of contrasts.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2022 23:55
|
|
|
The Terror by Dan Simmons. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of effort the author put into getting things right; not really knowing anything about him, I was just expecting a superficial knowledge of sailing ships or arctic expeditions. On the down side, the book really seemed to drag, like a movie’s worth of story dragged out into a television series. And this is despite me having an unusual level of interest in the subject matter, as my other recent book shows. Overall, the book just didn’t work for me, so I would recommend non-fiction like the accounts of Ernest Shackleton or Robert Falcon Scott, or fiction like the Aubrey/Maturin series, over this. The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy by N.A.M. Rodger. By contrast, this is a dry treatise of the Royal Navy that was somehow much easier to read. I’m not sure why an analysis of the victualing board can hold my attention better than a monster eating arctic explorers, but it did. There’s also a cover blurb by Patrick O’Brian calling it the “most authoritative and enjoyable text on the subject that can be imagined,” which is a better endorsement than me. One warning: the binding on my paperback is utter garbage and there are numerous pages falling out from normal reading.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2022 18:59
|
|
|
Simmons’ The Abominable is the same. Hyperion was great, though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2022 23:02
|
|
|
Thanks for the warning, because The Abominable is what I would've tried as a second shot because I like mountain climbing almost as much as sailing. Shame that the books that seem specifically designed for me miss the mark.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2022 02:42
|
|
|
Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Bit of a weird sci-fi book, in the vein of Ursula LeGuin, in that it's more interested in philosophical questions provoked by the weirdness of a profoundly alien environment than it is in its characters or plot. Also one of those books filled with flashbacks that deliberately tries to obscure the details about what's going on, in order to make you think. In my opinion, there's a kernel of some interesting plots here that get drowned out by the philosophical musings and weird planet stuff. Ultimately I found myself just not caring very much about what was going on. Some interesting stuff to think about, but not a compelling story to me.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2022 00:59
|
|
|
Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter: A series of vignettes telling the stories of people involved at different stages of a multi-generational ship with a mission to explore an unusual star. The story itself mostly revolves around the political intrigue of the daily lives of the people in the convoy, and is not nearly as much science fiction as the initial concept makes it appear - but the end-result is, I think, better for not trying to stick to the hard science. It sort of reminds me of Dune, in how both books are science fiction but revolve around people and the politics, rather than diving deep into science or techno-babble - and if you know me, you know comparisons to Dune usually mean the work is rather good in my opinion. I look forward to the two next books in the series.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2022 08:42
|
|
|
After years of it being on my list and hearing about how it fills in background details and is one of the better modern Bond books by one of the better authors to take up the mantle I finally read the novelization of Goldeneye by John Gardner and it sucked. Yes it does fill some plot holes present in the film, but none of them really felt of consequence to either version of the story. And hooboy is it constrained by following an early draft of the screenplay to a T: Gardner could not or did not embellish much here. Honestly might have been more exciting if I had read the actual script to Goldeneye. Also there's a weird sort of pacing issue where what were the big swaggering moments in the film are curtly described with no extra words to flesh them out into the showcases they're meant to be. I'm thinking specifically of the archives/tank chase and the final fight here which the whole end of the book felt rushed. Also Boris' characterization was better on screen. All of that might be my bias though from having the movie still memorized as it was my childhood favorite. I've also read other non movie based Bond books from John Gardner and other authors and don't remember poo poo about them, but still remember details from Ian Fleming's books. I guess he really was the only one who could write Bond, even though it's still 50s pulp fiction bullshit. Memorable bullshit though, I should finish the read along thread that was here in TBB a while back. Reading people's reactions to book Bond was great!
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2022 06:33
|
|
|
Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann. It's a memoir, published 1961, of a pilot who flew airliners (and, during WW2, cargo planes) from the 1930s into the 1950s. Gann's prose occasionally wanders into the too-flowery, especially when he goes off onto philosophical tangents... but it never really feels inappropriate. And that's the closest thing I have to a criticism of what I've just found as one of my favorite books of all time. Gann has a way of bringing you right into that cockpit and making you feel the emergency right along with him. In particular, there's the chapter named "Ice", detailing his first experience with airframe icing -- my hands were almost shaking by the end. The most prosaic scenario, such as the flight of (really) a planeload of toilet paper -- which gets lost over an ocean, trying to determine not only their position but also their actual altitude in deep fog, all with 1940s technology -- becomes a gripping life-or-death drama. This book is considered a classic amongst pilots, and for good reason. I am not a pilot, but my father is, which is how I heard of it. And I can attest that you don't have to be a pilot to appreciate this book. Recommended.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2022 04:52
|
|
|
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie. I recently saw a ballet performance of Peter Pan, which had some significant differences from the movie, so I was wondering which was more faithful to the original book. Turns out the movie more closely follows the book than I'd expected, albeit with less murder. The book also features the style of narration that I miss in modern books, where the narrator interjects commentary into the story. In Peter and Wendy, the narrator even goes as far as just making things up, which I can't even think of another example of (it's not really like Pale Fire or Book of the New Sun in that the narrator isn't part of the story, it's like an unreliable third party omniscient narrator): quote:Let us now kill a pirate, to show Hook’s method. Skylights will do. As they pass, Skylights lurches clumsily against him, ruffling his lace collar; the hook shoots forth, there is a tearing sound and one screech, then the body is kicked aside, and the pirates pass on. He has not even taken the cigars from his mouth.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2022 16:10
|
|
|
Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende Last month I was listening to an old episode of Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell that had Eric Brende as a guest, and I was intrigued enough by the premise of his book to go find and read it. On the show, I found him to be insufferable as a person, but I wanted to know more about the experiment and the Minimite people. After finishing the book, my opinion hasn't changed. Eric is a little weasel guy with some daddy issues and the hubris to think that he can solve the world's problems by not owning a TV. The frustrating part is that he is onto something, but he gets so close to understanding that the problem is the system of capitalism without actually realizing it and saying it. How can you write "mutual aid" several times in your book and not get the hint? I got a huge laugh out of the throw-in part near the end where he went to the college lecture on feminism and these primitive societies and bravely chimed in with his "actually, the patriarchy is not so bad in the Amish community," triggering a "sigh of approval" from the rest of the audience. Sure Eric, that's definitely why they were sighing. And really astute of him to make sure he shoehorned his point into the book as the entire rest of it is how many different men he got to know in the community while getting to know none of the women. 2 out of 5 jars of sorghum molasses
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2022 16:17
|
|
|
AngusPodgorny posted:The book also features the style of narration that I miss in modern books, where the narrator interjects commentary into the story. Saramago does a similar thing and I really do like it, where it makes the narration feel more like a conversation with the reader or maybe just less detached than the sort of neutral or journalistic style typically used. I’d probably hate it if everyone did it but in the hands of a few it’s enjoyable and engaging.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2022 16:57
|
|
|
Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather came highly recommended to me for its mix of a sci-fi setting, LGBT characters, and taking religion seriously. The premise: in the aftermath of a devastating war between Earth and its colonies, an order of nuns travel the stars, their convent a living starship, and get caught up in events. This book is better described as a novella, and I wish there was more. What is here is interesting, injecting religious politics into a boilerplate Fascist Earth vs Freedom-Loving Colonies plot, but the book is so short that I felt like no one and nothing got a chance to breathe. The makings of a really good story are here, it's just badly rushed to the point that I found it interesting but unsatisfying.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2022 18:14
|
|
|
Rolling Through the Years: A Cedar Point Atlas and Chronology by Ken Miller: A behemoth coffee table book that discusses the history of Cedar Point - an amusement park in Sandusky, OH that is regularly on "top amusement park" lists. It was intended to be one of the many big to-do's during Cedar Point's 150th anniversary in 2020, but the pandemic squashed all of their plans that year. While it still was published in 2020, it only made it into the gift shops of the park this year which is where I discovered it during our annual family trip. Cedar Point is very near to my heart and this book was fascinating for me with a lot of history about the early days and year-to-year discussions of changes at the park from 1870 to 2020. I can definitely tell this was a one-man book (no editors, published by his own company, etc.) because it's riddled with typos, but that didn't detract from the author's clear love of the park and its history. Among the last pages of the book is a preview for the 2020 season before the park opened and before the pandemic hit, which was a bit sad to be reminded of all the plans that were shifted to 2021 or cancelled entirely. Overall though, a great book for a Cedar Point aficionado like myself. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull: My daughter is classified as an "advanced reader" in her 1st grade class, so we've been trying to grow that at home. We provide many books, but we will also suggest books that are levels higher and read them with her or let her read them herself. She still maintains that chapter books are boring because they don't have pictures, so I've been trying to find one that will enrapture her. Fablehaven probably won't do the trick for her, but it was a good middle-grade read. I can't be too critical of the book given its intended audience is 1/3 my age, but its story is told well. One of the main protagonists annoyed the hell out of me. He's constantly making bad decisions and not learning from his mistakes, but I suppose that sums up a 6th grade boy pretty well. It was a quick read, but probably not one that my daughter will latch onto. Good-Natured Filth fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Oct 1, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2022 14:12
|
|
|
Turbinosamente posted:After years of it being on my list and hearing about how it fills in background details and is one of the better modern Bond books by one of the better authors to take up the mantle I finally read the novelization of Goldeneye by John Gardner and it sucked. I read License Renewed by Gardner and all I recall was 1) Bond drove a custom Saab 900 and 2) it sucked
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2022 01:44
|
|
|
I’ve read all of the Bond novels - Fleming through Horowitz and Gardner was actually fine. Yes the car was very stupid and I was never sure whether I was supposed to think of it as the neutering of a high flying espionage service or actually threatened by the powerful Saab engine. The most recent Horowitz book “A Mind To Kill” had no business being as stupid as it was for being written in 2022.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2022 02:13
|
|
|
I just finished 'The Majestic 311' by Keith Blackmore. It's a wild ride, the ending is a bit poo poo but overall I enjoyed it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2022 21:12
|
|
|
Bilirubin posted:I read License Renewed by Gardner and all I recall was 1) Bond drove a custom Saab 900 and 2) it sucked punissuer posted:I’ve read all of the Bond novels - Fleming through Horowitz and Gardner was actually fine. Yes the car was very stupid and I was never sure whether I was supposed to think of it as the neutering of a high flying espionage service or actually threatened by the powerful Saab engine. I have read other Gardner Bond books, but yeah all I remember is the Saab, him almost freezing to death in Ice Breaker or whatever the title was, and the books overall being okay. Didn't Aston Martin have a hell of a time in the early 90s and that's why the choice of other cars for Bond? I know the films turned to BMW because something was going on with Aston. Also did anyone here read Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks? It's a one off Bond novel by that author and I remember it being also rather meh.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2022 23:55
|
|
|
The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull is a thoroughly whelming book. If you're familiar with the sort of sci-fi/fantasy book about a small town becoming center stage for fantastical events (in this case, the arrival of maybe-benign, maybe-not aliens) that's told mainly from the ground-eye view of ordinary people caught up in the happenings, you know the routine. The Lesson is competently written and plotted, but the plot itself is entirely normal for this type of book and left me looking for a plot twist that never came. What gave this book some spice, though, was the unusual choice of setting: this book takes place in the Caribbean islands, lending a much more overt anti-colonialism message than normal, and most of the cast is black or mixed-race. There's even a gay couple in the book, though they're minor characters. If you enjoy this kind of plot, it's a fine example of the breed, but aside from the location and diversity of the characters I felt that the plot and the characters themselves were nothing special.
|
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2022 13:50
|
|
|
Event by David Golemon. Totally not X-COM fights totally not chryssalids in the Arizona desert while dodging totally not sectoids and an evil megacorp in some thoroughly generic sci-fi action schlock.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 00:32
|
|
|
I wanted the BotM to be Convenience Store Woman but I lost so I read that anyway. Very short read, very interesting. Reminded me of American Psycho, in a way, without the violence.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 15:07
|
|
|
Good-Natured Filth posted:Fablehaven by Brandon Mull: My daughter is classified as an "advanced reader" in her 1st grade class, so we've been trying to grow that at home. We provide many books, but we will also suggest books that are levels higher and read them with her or let her read them herself. She still maintains that chapter books are boring because they don't have pictures, so I've been trying to find one that will enrapture her. Fablehaven probably won't do the trick for her, but it was a good middle-grade read. I can't be too critical of the book given its intended audience is 1/3 my age, but its story is told well. One of the main protagonists annoyed the hell out of me. He's constantly making bad decisions and not learning from his mistakes, but I suppose that sums up a 6th grade boy pretty well. It was a quick read, but probably not one that my daughter will latch onto. Depends on how advanced you want. St that age we read through the Just Grace series, which is "advanced" for a first grader, but in the sense that it's more 2-3rd grade probably. There's still a good bit of pictures and the problems and whatnot seem really appropriate to 2nd grade kid. The Sheep, The Rooster, and The Duck by Matt Phelan is an amazing sort of pre-french revolution pastiche, where the titular animals try and prevent a war between England and France. Phelan tends to have sort of graphic novel-y action sequences. There's like a 15 page hot air balloon chase in the middle that's almost all just drawn and is pretty cool. My kid isn't so much into knights, but his Knight vs series is also pretty slick. Once Upon a Camel is a good one probably 3rd grade or so. You know, with camels. It gets a bit sad at times. My kid loves the Mythomania books as well. She's big on 39 Clues now, but I haven't read any so can't speak to pictures. Not advanced, but in 1st grade, my kid read through Owl Diaries, Unicorn Diaries, and the Kitty books by Paula Harrison. Sort of early chapter books with lots of pictures.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2022 17:24
|
|
|
The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815 - 1914 was just magisterial in cramming 800 pages full of every single thing that could be said of its subject, all the way down to a page delving into the return of the beard and mustache to European faces. I hope that Daniel Howe's book about America 1815-1848 is similarly good.
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2022 02:00
|
|
|
Ben Nevis posted:Depends on how advanced you want. St that age we read through the Just Grace series, which is "advanced" for a first grader, but in the sense that it's more 2-3rd grade probably. There's still a good bit of pictures and the problems and whatnot seem really appropriate to 2nd grade kid. The Sheep, The Rooster, and The Duck by Matt Phelan is an amazing sort of pre-french revolution pastiche, where the titular animals try and prevent a war between England and France. Phelan tends to have sort of graphic novel-y action sequences. There's like a 15 page hot air balloon chase in the middle that's almost all just drawn and is pretty cool. My kid isn't so much into knights, but his Knight vs series is also pretty slick. Once Upon a Camel is a good one probably 3rd grade or so. You know, with camels. It gets a bit sad at times. My kid loves the Mythomania books as well. She's big on 39 Clues now, but I haven't read any so can't speak to pictures. Not advanced, but in 1st grade, my kid read through Owl Diaries, Unicorn Diaries, and the Kitty books by Paula Harrison. Sort of early chapter books with lots of pictures. Thanks for the suggestions! She loves Owl Diaries and Unicorn Diaries. She also regularly picks up Junie B Jones, Firehawk Island, and Rainbow Magic. I'm just trying to help her branch out even more (and reading kids books is a guilty pleasure of mine).
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 00:36
|
|
|
Just finished The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. I was familiar with her Moomintroll comics, but hadn't known until recently that she also wrote novels. It was excellent and managed to pull off the difficult thing of the book being shaped around an obvious absence that drove the behavior of the characters without ever directly addressing that absence in the text. Incomprehensibly, the NYRB recently collected this in an "Uplifting Books" package, which seems insane to me given that the book is obviously about a family dealing with intense grief and is somber and bittersweet more than anything else. Anyway, she was a deft and subtle writer. Ordered the rest of her books straightaway.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2022 05:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 10:01 |
|
|
tiniestacorn posted:Just finished The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. Yes, yes, yes! I adored this when I read it a while ago, and have been meaning to devour her other books, both Moomin and otherwise.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2022 06:15
|
|
