pickAnd now I want to hug a sunflower seed. 🥹 This series is wonderful. Just that gentle, hopeful way of relaying the fact that we're all flawed and different and capable of change and deserving of belief in our ability to do so. Love the art. Very difficult not to hear the “baaaaaaad seed“ refrain to the tune of 'Bad to the Bone', which I presume was on purpose. 😁😉
so-soWh- ummm, okay, I acknowledge that if I read this as a teenager I would have been devastated and thrilled and singing it's praises. As a cranky adult however ... I guess I'm honestly hesitant to recommend it to teenagers given some of the content, even if generally, 1/?
pickAbsolutely zoomed through this one. Not in a 'want to get it over with way', but a 'can't put it down' way. I had my reservations about Lydia's life choices at the start, but her edging outside the social niceties and the rules primes her to take on the rollicking plot that develops. 1/?
pickI LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!
The silliness and the warmth, that compassionate, gently teaching vibe. Similar to Becky Chambers in that sometimes it takes the author speaking through alien species to remind humans there are more accepting, kinder ways to act towards yourself and others. Main character is ace and agender, also disability rep with asthma and allergies, and some of the early medical discussion 1/?
It's just so soothing to read about a positive plan in the sphere of nature conservation.
pickSpectacular. Equal parts joy and sadness with regards to the potential of developing a skill, a creative outlet, sharing life with family and friends, addressing loss that comes with war, with the death of a parent. The sinister element of the liches, the idea of refusing death, spirits not at rest hungering for power, also feels like a metaphor for how war devastates, can traumatize survivors. 1/?
OMG, the descriptions get better!
“defiant, floppy goblin“ vs “dour trash can“
😆 Loving the writing.
Having the best time with this mental image. 🦉😁 Big and fluffy!
“Check out your floopy, floppy ears! How adorable are you!“
What do you say upon first contact with the (rainbow pastel, dog-sized) rabbit-looking aliens. 🤦🏼♂️[6 minutes into this audiobook, already in love. ] 😆
so-soI can say I listened to the audiobook from start to finish, but I can't say I absorbed all of it. When I was paying attention, Pacino's voice and his recounting of days gone by was on the whole a charming experience, but I found it very easy to drift off to other thoughts in the process. 1/
Worth putting the Acknowledgements at the front of the book when you get material like this. ☺️🦖⛰️
pickI feel like I'm wading into the deep end of terminology I don't have enough knowledge of, but I'd be surprised if some of the most common keywords in reviews for this book weren't neurodivergent and masking. 1/?
Most of the time I'd like to think I would not wish a set of instructions (aside from the mostly unvoiced, implicit, learned the hard way set achieved via the struggle to adulthood) to dictate my behaviour. But there are days when a manual for functioning in society would come in very handy...
Current read colour palette. It's giving sunrise on the sea pastels. 🌅
so-soI had a decent time with this book, but I'm finding it impossible to categorize for the sake of recommending it to the right audience.
A bunch of cozy moments, even set around Christmas/New Years holidays, but also worrying about political situations, social issues, parent's health, husband's well-being, the doom that the button box might unleash, and missing girls. 1/?
pickChalk this up as another book doing battle with its own subtitle 'a monument to the book as object', based on the introductory discussion of The Thing periodical, it's clear that non-traditional formatting is key in the minds of those putting together the magazine. So when they decided to make a book, what you get is partly an exploration of books, their components, the way they tell stories, 1/?
Who knows what the tone the second book in a series written by only one of the original co-authors, prefaced by a first book I might term horror-fantasy, might be, but what I do know is this is a very cute owl. ☺️
pickMy only issue is with the subtitle. This can be accurately described as an anthology, but I think it's a stretch to call it a collection of stories about Nova Scotia history. The selection is a bit too fragmented and subjective for that. Ghost stories plural don't usually enter into the histories I encounter, and a decent percentage of the stories told/illustrated, 1/?
pickThe story of a singular life but also music history, British history, cultural history, drug history.
Pros: Respect for, sharing and collaboration with musicians.
Cons: Casual misogyny, and yet love for women, less about sex than affection, mother issues? (She didn't seem overly affectionate.) Not certain how great a husband or father he's been, and the language occasionally reveals his membership in an earlier generation. 1/?
pickI don't THINK any of this is a spoiler but I went into the book knowing nothing at all and had a wonderful time, so maybe just take my recommendation to read it, and come back to this review if you feel like sharing the love (or yelling at me) after you've read it. 1/?
so-so1/? I have a feeling someone's going to read this and accuse me of lacking a sense of humour. Know that I find some of Pratchett's writing hilarious, AND I have issues with some of it.
I regularly appreciate how Pratchett weaves social commentary into fantasy comedy, but upon reread I'm not sure that method was successful in this book.
Second instance of Shaan cutting efficiently through the BS. Maybe it's personally motivated, but it propels the plot, and I love her for it. 👏🏻
Vibrant colourway vibe from TBR pile. High contrast makes sense for what I'm willing to bet are intense narratives! 💛💙
Careful, Victor!
I've seen Monty Python, you DO NOT offend the rabbit. 🫣
Going to be thinking about this one for a while. The amount of old tech I've seen upcycled into art certainly bears out the idea...
Not the LIBRARY book! 😱 DUDE! ☹️ Darn right, contract not renewed. 🙎🏼♂️
Adorable - and educational! - right down to the endpapers.
pickYes, it's a 'be good, kids' script wrapped up in a poem, but so was How do Dinosaurs Say Good Night and I love that one too. Wholesome, sweet with wonderful illustrations. If you want a quick, festive read for all ages, I highly recommend.
pickPerceptive, relatable observations that feel like simple,contemporary, slice-of -life moments, shot through with increasingly abstract and experimental expansions on previously introduced themes: 1/?
Well DAMN. 📚♥️
pickWhen you write a presumed dead character back into a series, it does make it a little more difficult to believe that you've truly killed off another character at the end of the same book. That being said, I can see where the author might feel he'd done everything he could with River Cartwright. 1/? [It's gonna be a long one]
“I teach them reading and disrespect for authority...“
Lesson plan approved. 👏🏻
When the cover art is pretty enough to use as the endpapers too. Love it. 😍
Should I find that funny? The cackle I just let out says I do. Let's call it darkly humourous. 🫢
pickYes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I did not know this was the start of a trilogy when I began the book, I'm glad I found that out before I got to the ending. I wouldn't put this in irritating cliffhanger territory, a lot is accomplished, explained, revealed in this first book, but you can clearly see an overarching plot that has a ways to go. 1/?
pickWOW. Knocked it out of the park. 🤌🏻
They're always asking the muse to sing of the wrath of Achilles, but when it comes to rage he's got nothing on Hera. Two thirds of the way through this book, I'd say it was a toss up between survivor narrative or villain origin story, considering the Olympian levels of toxic relationships going on. 1/?
pickArt that is both lovely and adorable, and a great message. I will definitely be investigating the rest of this series.
A dedication is much improved by macarons high-fiving. ☺️
It was very like a drug...I could kick smack. I couldn't kick music.
so-soWell-fleshed out characters, a few 'good guys' to get invested in, twisty, dramatic, a bit too close to thriller tropes I don't enjoy, such as a liberal helping of awful people doing awful things, or awful things happening to people, or people who've had awful things happen to them doing unlikeable things. A bunch of juicy scandals, for those who like that sort of thing, and a dual timeline with various mechanisms to draw out the tension. 1/?
pickInteresting experience listening to a Miss Marple mystery, in audio only format. In some ways the bits that are frustrating are more so, when a character is designed to be insufferable, he is now insufferable with an English accent that makes him sound like a person with a blocked nose that needs to sneeze. When the old man is being callous or the elder brother is being smarmy, I feel like it takes an age to get past the moment of unpleasantness.
pickExhausting and entertaining, as usual! There were a few things about this particular entry in the series that made me love it just a little bit more. The Victorian steam punk-mad scientist-masked ball atmosphere of the Grand Technological Exhibition and the techno-gothic atmosphere of the Sagrada Familia cathedral were truly gorgeous set pieces for the rapidly developing action leading to the climax. 1/?
No, no, no! Those with singed clothing proferring experimental devices have not passed my personal health and safety check! 🫣
so-soGiven the book is over a hundred years old and I've never read from this author before, it's difficult for me to tell whether the distinctive language style is a product of being on the cusp of the roaring twenties or Wodehouse's particular parlance. Either way, it's the most fascinating part of this collection of stories for me. 1/?
