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Hey everybody. I am known as the Cool Book Uncle and my nieces and nephews have shelves devoted to the awesome books I've sent them. My secret was that I was a teacher so I could always check out a zillion different kids books in our school library, or see what the kids were bringing into school. We've been online for ages so I am dry. I was wondering if anyone had any good recs for kid's books for the 6 yrs old and under crowd. I'm Xmas shopping soon. Previous hits that they've loved: - Old Black Fly - The Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business - Brian Froud art books The third was a particular hit and blew the little dude's mind. So, does anyone have any great ideas of interesting and creative kids books I could gift them that will help me maintain my reputation? Caveats: Nothing Ultra Famous: Their parents already grab the classics like Dr Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are, etc. I have to be the indie book guy. Nothing Virtue Signaling: I'd like to think I'm pretty woke, but I draw the line at pandering poo poo like Antiracist Baby or She Persisted. Kids don't like those books. Parents like showing off that they have those books. Not interested. Nothing Marvel/Star Wars/Disney: They do love that poo poo and I've got nothing against Star Wars, I just assume that there is a good chance they already have a lot of that stuff and also I am the guy with the Weird Books. Anyone have anything special that jumped out at them?
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Nov 10, 2021 12:51
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Mr. Grapes! posted:Cool Book Uncle
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Nov 10, 2021 14:38
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If they don't have these already, the Dinotopia series by James Gurney, The Way Things Work by David Macaulay, and anything by Graeme Base. I loved those when I was little.
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Nov 10, 2021 15:49
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My kids really liked "Ada Twist Scientist" and "Rosie Revere, Engineer" etc. They are a little famous and a little virtue signaling but not nearly to the extent as your examples. It's mostly in the "Science is cool and don't let weird gender norms stand in your way". "Dragons love Tacos" is another obv for that age group, another pretty famous one. I've read the "Bone" graphic novels to my son when he was 6-7, he really liked those. They were sometimes maybe a little old for him, but not in a bad way and the art is great and it's a real nice thing to read to him.
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Nov 10, 2021 21:48
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Mr. Grapes! posted:Cool Book Uncle Mr. Squirrel and the Moon, by Sebastian Meschenmoser and anything else by him. The Church Mouse books by Grahame Oakley, a little hard to find these days but worth it. After Man by Dougal Dixon is back in print. If they liked the Brian Froud maybe the Gnomes book by Wil Huygen. Books by David Wiesner, Shaun Tan, Bill Thomson or Chris Van Allsburg. Not Now Bernard by Dave Mckee. Jan Thomas is really funny, Mo Willems is obviously huge but so great for that age. The Book with no Pictures by B.J. Novak. We Don't Eat our Classmates by Ryan Higgins. I Yam a Donkey by Cece Bell. Du iz Tak by Carson Ellis. The Hilda books by Luke Pearson. The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton (she was a goon, for a very short while). Professional Crocodile by Giovanna Zoboli. Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs. This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers. The Findus and Petson books by Sven Nordqvist. Should be something there.
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Nov 11, 2021 00:57
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I just finished The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris and really enjoyed it, is there an equivalently well-written, historically scrupulous accounting of the Norman conquest and aftermath? I see Morris wrote a book about the conquest itself but I’m more interested about the period after that.
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Nov 11, 2021 01:49
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yaffle posted:
I think New Dinosaurs by the same author is still out of print, but it's definitely a Cool Book Uncle book. (I think I discovered that book, and the ones I posted about earlier, from my Cool Book Grandparents.) I probably wouldn't recommend Man After Man, though.
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Nov 11, 2021 02:38
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ScienceSeagull posted:
ah..,how many men would you recommend?
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Nov 11, 2021 02:42
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regulargonzalez posted:Have you read The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August? I don't know if it technically counts as a time travel book but if it doesn't, it should I think I started that book but couldn't get in to it. I'll check it out again and give it another go.
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Nov 11, 2021 04:22
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Mr. Grapes! posted:Hey everybody. Uspenski is ultra-famous but I'm still going to recommend The Little Warranty People. e: How the gently caress has Вниз по волшебной реке not been translated into English? What are publishers even doing?!? 
3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Nov 11, 2021 |
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Nov 11, 2021 04:54
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yaffle posted:
Oh yeah these are also great. The Netflix cartoon is fantastic as well.
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Nov 11, 2021 04:59
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Hughmoris posted:I think I started that book but couldn't get in to it. I'll check it out again and give it another go. Took me a couple of times too. It's not revelatory or anything but it's interesting and once I got 50 pages in or so I enjoyed the rest of the way.
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Nov 11, 2021 05:02
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ScienceSeagull posted:If they don't have these already, the Dinotopia series by James Gurney, The Way Things Work by David Macaulay, and anything by Graeme Base. I loved those when I was little. Seconding Graeme Base. Is Bill Peet too famous/obvious? All of his books were my jam as a little kid.
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Nov 11, 2021 14:34
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Lots of awesome suggestions! Thanks, I'll definitely grab a few that people have mentioned.
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Nov 12, 2021 01:42
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ScienceSeagull posted:I think New Dinosaurs by the same author is still out of print, but it's definitely a Cool Book Uncle book. (I think I discovered that book, and the ones I posted about earlier, from my Cool Book Grandparents.) Man after man is cool it's just explicitly sci fi rather than fake biology.
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Nov 12, 2021 10:15
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Yeah, it's not bad in itself, but it's much darker in tone than Dixon's other books and the illustrations of modified humans might be a bit scary for young ones.
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Nov 12, 2021 16:14
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Is there a good overview book of WWII, comparable to the American Civil War's Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson? I've got the itch to recap that massive war, but I'd prefer an overview instead of a deep dive into any specific subject in the war. e: Milhist thread in A/T has me covered. I'll happily take recs here but I'm covered. 
StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Nov 13, 2021 |
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Nov 13, 2021 16:21
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A friend of mine is looking for a novel to help her practice her English. She specifically is looking for a book set in the current day with a lot of dialog in it since she wants to get more comfortable with the kind of vocabulary you'd find in everyday conversations. I realize this is probably an unusual request but I'd love to get some recommendations. Her English is quite good though certainly not fluent so something that's not too heavy on jargon or unusual prose is probably best.
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Nov 14, 2021 12:03
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a7m2 posted:A friend of mine is looking for a novel to help her practice her English. She specifically is looking for a book set in the current day with a lot of dialog in it since she wants to get more comfortable with the kind of vocabulary you'd find in everyday conversations. I realize this is probably an unusual request but I'd love to get some recommendations. Her English is quite good though certainly not fluent so something that's not too heavy on jargon or unusual prose is probably best. With the focus being conversational, perhaps some sort of comic book/web comic/graphic novel format? When my grandfather immigrated after world war 2 he learned a lot of random language from television, specifically three stooges... he was saying nyuck nyuck nyuck right up until he croaked.
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Nov 14, 2021 14:49
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External Organs posted:With the focus being conversational, perhaps some sort of comic book/web comic/graphic novel format? No, she's specifically looking for a novel. That's a great anecdote!
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Nov 14, 2021 15:40
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a7m2 posted:A friend of mine is looking for a novel to help her practice her English. She specifically is looking for a book set in the current day with a lot of dialog in it since she wants to get more comfortable with the kind of vocabulary you'd find in everyday conversations. I realize this is probably an unusual request but I'd love to get some recommendations. Her English is quite good though certainly not fluent so something that's not too heavy on jargon or unusual prose is probably best. Maybe head over to the YA section of the library? If it's arranged by genre I'd look for realistic fiction. Failing that there's a lot to be said for a huge volume of junk, how does she feel about romance?
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Nov 14, 2021 16:25
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I really loved Piranesi and couldn’t put it down. I’m looking for other tight and clever page-turners. I like sci fi and horror but I’ll try anything.
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Nov 14, 2021 23:53
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tuyop posted:I really loved Piranesi and couldn’t put it down. Have you read her other book, Strange and Norrell?
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Nov 15, 2021 00:00
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tuyop posted:I really loved Piranesi and couldn’t put it down. Six Wakes maybe? But nothing's really like Piranesi...
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Nov 15, 2021 00:06
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Borges short story collection…or The Name of the Rose?
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Nov 15, 2021 00:24
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a7m2 posted:A friend of mine is looking for a novel to help her practice her English. She specifically is looking for a book set in the current day with a lot of dialog in it since she wants to get more comfortable with the kind of vocabulary you'd find in everyday conversations. I realize this is probably an unusual request but I'd love to get some recommendations. Her English is quite good though certainly not fluent so something that's not too heavy on jargon or unusual prose is probably best. I know these aren't novels, but what about "an oral history of..." type books, which are basically written like one big conversation? Meet Me in the Bathroom comes to mind. Or maybe something like David Sedaris's nonfiction work, which is written in a conversational style?
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Nov 15, 2021 00:57
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buffalo all day posted:Borges short story collection…or The Name of the Rose? Nothing quite like ten-page exegeses on 14th century church politics to get those pages turning! Great book, though. This rec is funny because I’m 74% of the way through Foucault’s Pendulum and looking for a brief distraction before I get through the rest of the numerology and excellent prose. I’ll check out her other book but I bounced off Six Wakes pretty hard.
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Nov 15, 2021 01:11
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tuyop posted:I really loved Piranesi and couldn’t put it down. Based on the summary alone, I'd suggest House of Leaves but it's more sprawling than tight.
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Nov 15, 2021 01:54
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Looking for fiction or non-fiction about hostage scenarios, preferably told from multiple perspectives. Alternatively, a book analyzing hostage scenarios and maybe the evolution of hostage response/negotiation techniques over time. bowser fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Nov 15, 2021 |
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Nov 15, 2021 13:17
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Nov 15, 2021 14:03
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bowser posted:Looking for fiction or non-fiction about hostage scenarios, preferably told from multiple perspectives. I've often recommended this book on negotiation techniques written by a former hostage negotiator: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018FHCPDO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 He covers a lot of "this is what we used to do, this is what we do now, this is why what we do now is better" type topics.
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Nov 15, 2021 14:27
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tuyop posted:I really loved Piranesi and couldn’t put it down. Thank you for reminding me of Piranesi. I had it on my list and just kinda forgot about it. I was able to grab it from my library today!
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Nov 15, 2021 19:38
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bowser posted:Looking for fiction or non-fiction about hostage scenarios, preferably told from multiple perspectives. You might like Stanley Ellin's thriller Stronghold from the 70s about a Quaker community that gets taken hostage and has to manage the situation without betraying their pacifist beliefs
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Nov 16, 2021 01:33
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I've been thinking lately about how nice it would be, with online references getting worse and worse as they all pivot to trying to make money, to own a print thesaurus, and that got me thinking about other print reference books it would be nice to own now that I have the space. Maybe even, god help me, a print encyclopedia (it seems WorldBook is the only remaining one). Does anybody have any recommendations for large, interesting, and comprehensive books of information to keep around the house? Things I've owned in the past included the Oxford Companion to English Literature, Bartlett's Quotations, and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and fable, but I'm also interested in other topics like science, culture, and history.
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Nov 16, 2021 07:22
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Rand Brittain posted:I've been thinking lately about how nice it would be, with online references getting worse and worse as they all pivot to trying to make money, to own a print thesaurus, and that got me thinking about other print reference books it would be nice to own now that I have the space. Maybe even, god help me, a print encyclopedia (it seems WorldBook is the only remaining one). I keep a Latin-Finnish dictionary around because my Latin is very rusty, and also French-Finnish because at one point in time a lot of Anglo writers liked to put in quotes in French without a translation. Some still do because they're asses. A mushroom field guide with colour illustrations is good. Not for reading, but mushrooms are good and free and you don't want to pick the venomous ones. 
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Nov 16, 2021 07:56
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Rand Brittain posted:I've been thinking lately about how nice it would be, with online references getting worse and worse as they all pivot to trying to make money, to own a print thesaurus, and that got me thinking about other print reference books it would be nice to own now that I have the space. Maybe even, god help me, a print encyclopedia (it seems WorldBook is the only remaining one). "Who's Who in 20th Century Literature" is a fun book to have around, John Clute's Encyclopedias of Fantasy and Science fiction, The Re/Search guides to various things, a nice big atlas, there are book club editions of the greater oxford that you can pick up quite cheaply.
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Nov 16, 2021 09:19
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Rand Brittain posted:I've been thinking lately about how nice it would be, with online references getting worse and worse as they all pivot to trying to make money, to own a print thesaurus, and that got me thinking about other print reference books it would be nice to own now that I have the space. Maybe even, god help me, a print encyclopedia (it seems WorldBook is the only remaining one). The Pocket Reference has facts and figures for a whole bunch of stuff and sounds like it might be more efficient than googling about, say, the density of a type of steel or whatever. https://www.harborfreight.com/pocket-ref-third-edition-35569.html quote:Get 864 pages of charts, tables, conversions, constants, facts and figures on everything you’d want to know with this pocket reference guide! Chapters cover air and gasses, automotive, carpentry and construction, chemistry and physics, computers, electrical, general science, geology and much more. This handy pocket reference guide fits right in your pocket and is easily accessible at any time for quick information.
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Nov 16, 2021 15:26
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Are there any decent modern “sword and planet” books that scratch the same itch as John Carter? There seems to be no shortage of schlocky derivative crap. I was recommended Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett and In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling. Anyone else I should know about?
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Nov 17, 2021 16:48
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ProperGanderPusher posted:Are there any decent modern “sword and planet” books that scratch the same itch as John Carter? There seems to be no shortage of schlocky derivative crap. I was recommended Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett and In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.M. Stirling. Anyone else I should know about? If you're including Leigh Brackett and S.M. Stirling I'm assuming modern means "post-war". Rice Burroughs was so dominant that most talented people tried to move outside the shadow of his influence as the worst of his progeny flooded the cheap pulps. So there's not much great "sword and planet" stuff out there especially if you're chasing all three legs of the stool "sword", "planet" and "John Carter-like" in addition to well written. You might on the whole be better off chasing non-SF adventure fiction. Have you read Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series or Big Planet? The Old Mars/Venus etc. collections edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin should also have stuff you'd like (although there's a lot of stories that go meta-textual rather than homage). There's also The Good Stuff collection/s edited by Dozois but that runs the gamut of tones. Maybe Mary Gentle's Orthe series or stuff by Walter Jon Williams and Matthew Hughes
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Nov 17, 2021 23:46
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The Red Rising series is like sorta-Roman Empire but across the solar system with space battles, "iron rain" planetary attacks and infantry combat fought with literal swords.
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Nov 18, 2021 17:11
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