I loved The Hating Game more than99 Percent Mine, and realized why h. Twenty. The set-up in many 21st-century contemporary romance novels tends towardI loved The Hating Game more than99 Percent Mine, and realized why h. Twenty. The set-up in many 21st-century contemporary romance novels tends toward a woman with an interesting career that she's really good at, with good friends, a close and loving family, fun hobbies: she is a woman with a full, rich, satisfying life. (#notallcontemporaryheroines) The only thing missing is true love, which she is unlikely to be seeking. Lucy in Hating, and Ruthie in 2nd First aren't all that. They're undervalued and underpaid at work, family is emotionally or figuratively distant, and they have no friends. There are good things but there's also a lot of dissatisfaction. And the lack of friends is their biggest struggle, far more important to them than the lack of romance. They're swell gals with retro thrifted clothes, but they're lonely. So even though one of the joys for me in contemporary romance is the interaction with the friends and parents, it is also true that I have no longer have older close relatives and no best friend to hang out with IRL. So if anyone would like to suggest similar books, please do. Apparently I am an underserved audience.
Three geeky friends in their last year of high school have the chance to attend SupaCon together, because one of them is a vlogger who landed a film rThree geeky friends in their last year of high school have the chance to attend SupaCon together, because one of them is a vlogger who landed a film role that went big. There is so much fandom in the best possible way: new friendships, new experiences, new romance. There are struggles, laughter, tears, etc., and lots of bonding. Unusually for a contemporary romance, we don't get two POV characters alternating their two versions of the same romance, but instead we get two POV characters who are best friends, alternating their two separate romances. But really, this is much more a romance between two young women and fandom-at-large. There's cosplay, and games, art, and comics, vloggers and big studio film promotions, writers and the adoring readers who stand in line for hours to get a signature. It's also very much a story about young women and the culture they have created and enjoy. It doesn't pass a reverse-Bechdel I don't think, which is such a refreshing change. Seriously it's the most girl-powery thing since Spice World and the same heady mix of empowering and just plain fun.
Moriarty writes about a group of people, many of whom are first order relatives of one another, but also significant others, coworkers, friends, enemiMoriarty writes about a group of people, many of whom are first order relatives of one another, but also significant others, coworkers, friends, enemies, school mates, club members, wait staff... lots of people of all ages sometimes thinking to themselves but largely in conversation with one another. And the amazing thing is even though I don't know anyone who resembles their characteristics, the whole way through the book in the back of my head I'm going "yup, just like that; oh, yeah; nailed it."
It's a weird phenomena to be reading a work of fiction, knowing full and damn well it's a work of fiction, set in a place so far from me that just flying there would take 22 hours, and all the way through I'm congratulating her on writing about these people so accurately. Weird effect, but cool.
Yes, please, tell me about staring in the fridge and wondering "what can I fix for dinner?" and how boring that is and also about everything else you can think of. Even the acknowledgements are entertaining, which doesn't seem possible.
#39 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 f#39 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.
I don't know why Australia keeps popping up, but I keep grabbing Australian titles because I love how weird the critters are. In this particular case, I also love the collage, love the adaptation of the song, really love the backmatter with detailed info on how the art is made, among many in-depth bit, love the extra hidden critters although be warned, Libby couldn't cope with formatting the text at the end.
So this year I have decided to double my usual challenge. Just now I decided this. Every year I try to read a book a day, and many of those are picturSo this year I have decided to double my usual challenge. Just now I decided this. Every year I try to read a book a day, and many of those are picture books because I love picture books, and the new kids' books are displayed conveniently near the library door, and often there are themed displays. It's fun and spontaneous and good when I feel overwhelmed by life or responsibilities or what have you. Sometimes one becomes bogged down in serious or literally heavier books, in which case a picture book is an easy way to regain a feeling of progress. So there's that. But also, and I freely volunteer that this is petty, I really want to get back on the list. When I joined GoodReads back in 2008, I had already been in the habit of keeping track of my reading since, more or less 1988. Over the years I lost versions of print lists and changed databases and such and became possibly a wee bit obsessed with having a long-lasting version. So when I joined GR after the demise of a truly beloved site, Readerville, I came bearing a database. Which I uploaded. And also, my To Read list increased exponentially. So basically I showed up and pretty much instantly became a member who had read a lot of books and one who added a tremendous number of books to the database. Never was I especially popular, none of my reviews ever got more than a few likes, but a lot of books reviewed meant that I popped up a lot. My reviews had a long tail, if you will. So yeah, I am never going to win any recognition in the world at large, but I was in the top 50 of the Top 100 readers on GR because I had been writing reviews for 20 years at that point, and I had made an effort to keep track of what I had read and when. That was nice. And then one day I noticed I wasn't on the list. And I still don't know why. Looks like I should be. Whatever. By dint of reading a truly stupid number of books in one year and keeping track in real-time I hope to either draw attention to a trivial but inexplicable weirdness or just read my way back on to the list. Because anything trivial is worth making a minimal but genuinely pointless stab at, right? Plus my libraries have hooked me up with a number of electronic options for books, and I should be able to find plenty and turn them around quickly without inconveniencing my fellow patrons.
So, here I go: #1 on my new 365 Kids shelf.
Plot twist: it isn't a picture book. One of the flaws with Hoopla is not being able to easily distinguish text-only from picture books. So, likely to see this sort of thing again.
As for the title: while not all of the facts were amazing, quite a few of them were. There isn't a lot of context, just a list under a heading. And it really doesn't seem fair to start history with the English arriving. But that's it.Library
The best I can figure is someone went through a random collection of scenes never used for other books because they weren't very good, shuffled them iThe best I can figure is someone went through a random collection of scenes never used for other books because they weren't very good, shuffled them into a chronological order, and then typed it up with consistent names.
It's a mess, and none of the aspects rise above thoroughly mediocre: half-hearted Gothic, suspense, romance, travel, adventure, wish-fulfillment, etc. And a really surprising number of bastards or children who were legitimized by marriages between their mothers and people who were not their fathers.
Disappointingly, the Black Opal of the title is pure McGuffin, everyone ends up well off in a lovely home, the three possible love interests don't seem to interest the heroine much, and events are too random to even be coincidental. Of all the squares I considered using it for, it didn't really live up to any of them. I'm going with Gothic because it does have recognizable Gothic elements, even if they're not well-developed.
Nonetheless, it was an interesting read. It wasn't like the Victoria Holt books I read in the 70s, nor is it at all like contemporary romance or suspense. Although it lacked a real commitment to formula, it was very definitely written by someone who knew what would make an enjoyable read. Consider it a lesser work by a real pro. It certainly didn't put me off Holt: I have a couple more I'm considering.
Truly, Madly, Guilty - Liane Moriarty It's not a thriller.
Imagine that line as spoken by Arnold Schwarzenegger to his class in Kindergarten Cop. I sTruly, Madly, Guilty - Liane Moriarty It's not a thriller.
Imagine that line as spoken by Arnold Schwarzenegger to his class in Kindergarten Cop. I start here because I saw a review saying what a disappointing thriller it was, and it would be disappointing if that was what Moriarty were shooting for. It's also not a romance, or a mystery, or a literary novel, although it does share some elements with those.
What it is is a book about regular middle class suburban couples who experience a trauma together, and how it affects their lives thereafter. It's not a big trauma, it's not newsworthy, but it affects them all, and their little kids, too. And because the author takes her work seriously, there is much more to it than just that, humor, and backstory, and a way through, and a future.
I love books like this about living in after some bad thing. Fairy tales are important because they teach us that the witch or the monster can be killed, these books (and I hope someone has a short, catchy name for the genre that isn't sexist, because I sure don't) these books demonstrate how to live through the bad things and still have a good life. I don't believe stories about people living through horrible events and being stoic and saintly and a good example. Pain doesn't make people stronger or better, it makes us angry, and short-tempered, and hell to get along with. And of course, we all have pain and most of it is garden-variety common and of no interest to others. And the older we get the more time we spend attending funerals, the more people we have to lose. These books remind us that we can still laugh at the wake, that there are many ways to comfort one another in our loss.
Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty Broke my reading block, I hope. Liane is sister to Jaclyn, whose books I've adored. How cool is this family?
April 1Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty Broke my reading block, I hope. Liane is sister to Jaclyn, whose books I've adored. How cool is this family?
April 10, 2017Told Erin how much I enjoyed her recommendation, and about my delight in discovering that Liane was sister to Jaclyn. Now I'm going to read all of Liane's books and Erin said she'll give Jaclyn a go, since she's read all of Liane's.
Moriarty reminds me of Binchy and Pilcher and Susan Isaacs. It's got some drama, but there's more humor: the wry voice chuckling over family foibles, Moriarty reminds me of Binchy and Pilcher and Susan Isaacs. It's got some drama, but there's more humor: the wry voice chuckling over family foibles, meals, affairs, pregnancy, all over bottles of wine and good meals, and upper middle class luxury. Like Austen, there's a recognition that one person's drama is a spectator's comedy, a theme reinforced with interstitial vignettes as told by a spectator to some important moment.
I love a book that reminds me we all screw up, and we aren't bad people because we do.
This was my least favorite so far; it took me a while to really get hooked. And I still loved it. Erin who got me started on Moriarty has loaned me a This was my least favorite so far; it took me a while to really get hooked. And I still loved it. Erin who got me started on Moriarty has loaned me a Paula Hawkins, so I'm going to loan her a Carol Goodman. And walking out of my regular Tuesday meeting I got to talk books again with another coworker, who loved What Alice Forgot which I started as soon as I got home.
Like Saskia I had gotten out of the habit of talking to people, of having friends, of chatting. I appreciate having an example of how to get socially involved again.
Oh, hell, what I really love is the house on the beach.
I hope I've learned my lesson: don't start a Moriarty book unless I have plenty of time to finish it, because I can not put it down to go to sleep. KnI hope I've learned my lesson: don't start a Moriarty book unless I have plenty of time to finish it, because I can not put it down to go to sleep. Knowing I have to get up and go to work the next morning is not nearly sufficient to stop me reading just one more chapter, again and again until it 's all done.
The only bad thing I can say about it is that she focuses on white urban professionals. Yeah, that's attractive to many readers, 'm sure. And she is fabulous at depicting family life in a way that's realistic and not sentimental or smarmy. She can make a minor school event into high drama and a successful Tupperware saleswoman into a canny titan of industry.
And also, I suspect that these are all books I'm going to enjoy rereading, but it isn't as if characterization or setting or tone are sacrificed in favor of narrative drive. The plot zips along because the reader has become emotionally invested in these people, all of them.
Library copy.
Edited later the same evening to add:
Okay, I figured out one thing Moriarty does that makes her so appealing. She respects the work that women do. All of it. Not just the creative or professional careers, but also the glamour -free jobs, the volunteer work of PTAs, the emotional work of looking after family, the shitwork of buying groceries, and planning meals. All of it. That's so rare. Even the assholes who are instigating Mommy Wars don't really respect all of it: regardless of their agenda, they only respect the work of privileged women, whether it's as a CEO or as the stay-at-home mom fixing organic Vento boxes with loving notes. President of a tech start-up good, president of the PTA is just a joke usually. Women in Moriarty 's world can be wrong, prejudiced, or thoughtless, but they are all respected....more
Read yet again for my 365 Kids Book challenge. You can see all the books on their own shelf. Even as I am trying to catch up on my backl22 August 2021
Read yet again for my 365 Kids Book challenge. You can see all the books on their own shelf. Even as I am trying to catch up on my backlog of reviews in order to clear the TBR shelves for monsters, murder, and suchlike for the two months of All Hallow's Read and Halloween Bingo, I walked out of my libraries yesterday with more books than I could carry into the house in one trip.
Despite the objections I have to it, I do keep coming back. And when I do I usually end up wandering off on a side trip through maps or wikipedia. Today I went down the rabbit hole of biofluorescence because of the platypus. It's funny: I notice that Australia has a lot of that trademark box city from above portraits and a lot of animals and hardly any culture at all.
Now I'm really curious about what got left out of all of them.
***
14 November 2017
Culture: You're soaking in it. What's wrong with this sentence:
Platypus looks as if he were forever unable to decide what he wants to be: he has a beak like a bird, he swims under water like a fish, he has fur like a kangaroo, and he lays eggs but suckles his young.
***
18 March 2016
When I was a child we had a copy of This is London. In the London book there is a picture of a man, in a park, up a tree, and he's sawing off a tree branch: the one that he's sitting on! How quaint that seems now. I'd love to have all the original books, or reprints of same, in theory. I'm worried that the judicious choice of snippets for this book might have some possible basis in the idea of excising images or text that would be broadly offensive now. There is an emphasis here on Anglophone interests, and nothing, I think, on the native people of any location [Actually, there is a reference to Australian Aborigines, who mostly live in cities, "in more remote areas others still live as they may have done in traditional times, with their legends, their dances, their wood carvings and their bark painting." Based on that example, it's probably better not to include anything he might have said about indigenous people anywhere]. Really, it can't deserve the word "world" without anything from South America, Africa, or Asia, excepting Hong Kong which was still British at the time.
Anyway, I loved it. The art is so sixties, and so cool, even now it remains distinctive and attractive. His cities of tiny boxes are still cool. It may be a safe nostalgia, but it was good.
Wow, and I thought Finnikin of the Rock was great. Well, it was, but this is even better.
You know, it's really hard to say what makes a boMay 14, 2012
Wow, and I thought Finnikin of the Rock was great. Well, it was, but this is even better.
You know, it's really hard to say what makes a book good. Of course, it's not the same for every kind of book, either, but generally, I like complex characters, a mix of action and thought, a mix of comedy and tragedy, I prefer my dialogue to be amusing and pithy, and the character's actions to be revealing. I really like to see people being kind to one another, particularly as a route to love (no one has been as good at showing this since Austen).
Yeah, so Marchetta has all of that in spades. She has also given us a past that still reverberates for everyone, and more twists in the spaghetti than you can count. Dizzying, in the best possible way, because she might do anything now to anyone, and in a hundred pages, she'll change in entirely.
The main thing here is that a horrible war/curse took place thirteen years ago. Dreadful things were done by people and to people, and that guilt or shame remains.
A great book, because Marchetta never tries to tell us anything, she always finds a way to reveal the depth of conflicting emotions in her characters through their actions.
Annabel has traveled from New York, NY to Sydney, Australia to meet her new step family for the first time. There is conflict, there is a risky adventAnnabel has traveled from New York, NY to Sydney, Australia to meet her new step family for the first time. There is conflict, there is a risky adventure, bonds are formed. And then Annabel gets more family. Annabel is self-assured, even a little cocky, but not really prepared for a new family, and she believes she can talk her dad out of leaving them and coming home. Apparently, twelve is a delusional age. I'd expect it to go over well with fans of Moving Day.
Slow going at first, but when Taylor finally puts everything together, the reader is nearly as invested as she is. Part mystery, part boarding school Slow going at first, but when Taylor finally puts everything together, the reader is nearly as invested as she is. Part mystery, part boarding school tale, with a huge heaping of horrible things that can happen to kids. I understand why this won the Prinz, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Sad and satisfying, it evoked tears, but didn't feel manipulative. And the references to To Kill a Mockingbird were appreciated....more
French settled in a wildish section of Australia many years ago, putting her in a fabulous position to observe wombats. Since then she's devoted some French settled in a wildish section of Australia many years ago, putting her in a fabulous position to observe wombats. Since then she's devoted some time to rehabilitating wildlife as well as observing and writing about it.
Fun nonfiction for the critter-lover; a good interim book for kids who aren't yet ready for Herriot, but are past primarily picture books. Wombats are adorable and troublesome, and her anecdotes are well delivered and engaging on a level suitable for elementary school kids as well as older fans of the species.
It's a classic set up: a group is out camping in the wilderness and comes home to find something horrible has happened. In this case, Australia has beIt's a classic set up: a group is out camping in the wilderness and comes home to find something horrible has happened. In this case, Australia has been invaded and the families are all being detained. It's a perfect war scenario in that 1) we never do learn who the invaders are, so there's no noxious stereotypes 2) the detention of everyone else gives the would-be heroes free rein for destruction with zero non-combatants to fret over injuring 3) there's no nasty ambiguity or questionable motives.
To be clear: this is the perfect setting for a video game version of war, something that has no connection to real war. Not only do we never find out who the invaders are, it is literally impossible to speak to them, no one being able to identify their language. Guerrilla warfare is the only option, and the teens show aptitude. As action/adventure goes it is enormously satisfying and fun to read. There's nothing realistic about it, which makes it guilt-free. I can't wait to read the rest.
Library copy.
[I should mention that the copy I read has one of the least-appealing covers ever. Seriously ugly, I can't imagine anyone not being embarrassed to be seen with it.]...more
Nobody else writes quite like Moriarty. They are very realistic, believable stories about a fairly ordinary cast of high school students, and then graNobody else writes quite like Moriarty. They are very realistic, believable stories about a fairly ordinary cast of high school students, and then gradually you realize something is really wrong, and ride along with the characters as they figure out what's wrong and what to do about it. Although there is a mystery at the core, it isn't a conventional mystery format. Likewise her characters will face serious issues in their disparate lives, but it never becomes an Issue Novel. And somehow she manages to throw a little romance and a lot of good strong friendship in there. And the humor, too.
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