This Is a Moose
Richard T. Morris, illustrations by Tom Lichtenheld
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, YA Picture Book
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: A director wants to make a nature documentary about a moose, but the animals are very uncooperative.
REVIEW: Another quick read during down time at work, I found it amusing. The moose would much rather go to space as an astronaut than stand around in ponds eating
plants like he's supposed to... and that's just the start of the trouble. It has a little bit about film making on the side, with a quick glossary at the end, though mostly it's a story of shrugging off stereotypes. (I'll admit that part of my enjoyment stemmed from memories of the Rifftrax-enhanced short nature film
The Tale of Moose Baby, free on Hulu.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
Children Make Terrible Pets (Peter Brown) - My Review
The Knight and the Dragon (Tomie DePaola) - My Review
Carnivores (Aaron Reynolds) - My Review
Friday, June 20, 2014
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Graceling (Kristin Cashore)
Graceling
(The Graceling series, Book 1)
Kristin Cashore
Graphia
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since developing odd eyes - one green and one blue - Katsa was known to be a Graceling, touched by a rare magic with some unique gift. It wasn't until she killed a man at age eight that her Grace was revealed: she cannot be beaten in battle, nor does she feel pain as other people do. Her uncle, King Randa of the Middluns, uses her as his personal enforcer, sending her to punish or even kill criminals, rivals, or anyone who manages to displease him. The very whisper of her name is enough to strike fear into hearts across the Seven Kingdoms.
Katsa hates it.
She finds subtle ways to subvert Randa - creating a secret Council to soften the cruelty of his rule, twisting his orders so she might shed as little blood as possible - but cannot break free of his control of her life. Worse, her uncle expects her to marry at some point, for his own advantage naturally. As little as she can imagine being free of his collar, she can't begin to contemplate being with a man, even in an arranged union. At least, not until the night she sets out to rescue a kidnapped Lienid king and runs into Prince Po. Another Graceling, nearly her equal in combat, he makes her question everything she thought she knew about Randa, her Grace, and the whole of the Seven Kingdoms - not to mention the dark and terrifying places within her own frozen heart.
REVIEW: With a powerful yet fallible heroine and an interesting world, Graceling starts strong and rarely slackens its pace. Katsa's growth from unfeeling slave to empowered protector flows naturally with the story, with minimal whining or bouts of self-pity. Gracelings and the magic of the Graces are never fully explained, yet they work well in this world, creating people who are both feared and exploited for gifts they have no control over... or feared and outcast should their Grace prove useless. Worse, there is no way to hide the fact that one has a Grace, with such obvious markings as odd-colored eyes. The plot moves at a good clip, balancing action with introspection (with a slight bias toward the former) along the way to an intense climax. The ending feels slightly protracted, wrapping up the external conflict well before it resolves the internal ones. On the whole, I found it very enjoyable.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Green Rider (Kristen Britain) - My Review
The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley) - My Review
Alanna: The First Adventure (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
(The Graceling series, Book 1)
Kristin Cashore
Graphia
Fiction, YA Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since developing odd eyes - one green and one blue - Katsa was known to be a Graceling, touched by a rare magic with some unique gift. It wasn't until she killed a man at age eight that her Grace was revealed: she cannot be beaten in battle, nor does she feel pain as other people do. Her uncle, King Randa of the Middluns, uses her as his personal enforcer, sending her to punish or even kill criminals, rivals, or anyone who manages to displease him. The very whisper of her name is enough to strike fear into hearts across the Seven Kingdoms.
Katsa hates it.
She finds subtle ways to subvert Randa - creating a secret Council to soften the cruelty of his rule, twisting his orders so she might shed as little blood as possible - but cannot break free of his control of her life. Worse, her uncle expects her to marry at some point, for his own advantage naturally. As little as she can imagine being free of his collar, she can't begin to contemplate being with a man, even in an arranged union. At least, not until the night she sets out to rescue a kidnapped Lienid king and runs into Prince Po. Another Graceling, nearly her equal in combat, he makes her question everything she thought she knew about Randa, her Grace, and the whole of the Seven Kingdoms - not to mention the dark and terrifying places within her own frozen heart.
REVIEW: With a powerful yet fallible heroine and an interesting world, Graceling starts strong and rarely slackens its pace. Katsa's growth from unfeeling slave to empowered protector flows naturally with the story, with minimal whining or bouts of self-pity. Gracelings and the magic of the Graces are never fully explained, yet they work well in this world, creating people who are both feared and exploited for gifts they have no control over... or feared and outcast should their Grace prove useless. Worse, there is no way to hide the fact that one has a Grace, with such obvious markings as odd-colored eyes. The plot moves at a good clip, balancing action with introspection (with a slight bias toward the former) along the way to an intense climax. The ending feels slightly protracted, wrapping up the external conflict well before it resolves the internal ones. On the whole, I found it very enjoyable.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Green Rider (Kristen Britain) - My Review
The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley) - My Review
Alanna: The First Adventure (Tamora Pierce) - My Review
Saturday, June 14, 2014
You Are Not So Smart (David McRaney)
You Are Not So Smart
David McRaney
Gotham
Nonfiction, Human Psychology
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: You're not like those other people - the ones who are swayed by advertising and political posturing, who jump to conclusions, who are willfully blind to their own weaknesses, who are capable of acts of unthinkable callousness or cruelty. You know what's going on. You are in control of your life and your future. Sure, you make a few mistakes, but you learn from them, and will never repeat them.
If you think all that, you are not so smart. But don't worry. Nobody else is that smart, either.
McRaney outlines 48 common intrinsic faults in human thinking that skew our perceptions, handicap our growth, and hinder logical thought processes, most of them hardwired into our brains... yes, even yours.
REVIEW: This is an interesting - if often depressing - look at how little control we have over our mental processes and behaviors. No, we're not mindless automata enslaved by our ancestral subconscious brains, but we still have a lot of unacknowledged clutter in the attic... much of which we cannot eliminate. The articles are short, rarely longer than three pages, and make their points without too much psychological jargon. It makes for interesting food for thought... well, insomuch as my useless brain is capable of thought.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) - My Review
Duh!: The Stupid History of the Human Race (Bob Fenster) - My Review
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race (Jon Stewart et al.) - My Review
David McRaney
Gotham
Nonfiction, Human Psychology
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: You're not like those other people - the ones who are swayed by advertising and political posturing, who jump to conclusions, who are willfully blind to their own weaknesses, who are capable of acts of unthinkable callousness or cruelty. You know what's going on. You are in control of your life and your future. Sure, you make a few mistakes, but you learn from them, and will never repeat them.
If you think all that, you are not so smart. But don't worry. Nobody else is that smart, either.
McRaney outlines 48 common intrinsic faults in human thinking that skew our perceptions, handicap our growth, and hinder logical thought processes, most of them hardwired into our brains... yes, even yours.
REVIEW: This is an interesting - if often depressing - look at how little control we have over our mental processes and behaviors. No, we're not mindless automata enslaved by our ancestral subconscious brains, but we still have a lot of unacknowledged clutter in the attic... much of which we cannot eliminate. The articles are short, rarely longer than three pages, and make their points without too much psychological jargon. It makes for interesting food for thought... well, insomuch as my useless brain is capable of thought.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) - My Review
Duh!: The Stupid History of the Human Race (Bob Fenster) - My Review
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race (Jon Stewart et al.) - My Review
Monday, June 9, 2014
Quintessence (David Walton)
Quintessence
David Walton
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: For years, the Spanish Inquisition has swept Europe, with whole towns being tortured and burned for heresies real and imagined. Thus far, Protestant England has been spared the torch... but, with young King Edward on the brink of death and the exiled Catholic Mary prepared to fight to inherit his crown, trouble is coming. Stephen Parris, a physician to the king, already presses his luck by daring to dissect dead bodies - a sure sign of sorcery, even in relatively enlightened England, and a secret that would cost him his job and his fortune should his liege discover it. Should the Papists come to power, mere imprisonment would seem a mercy - and, with a Catholic-sympathizer wife and an innocent daughter on the brink of womanhood to protect, he can't risk discovery. Nevertheless, one night the infamous alchemist Christopher Sinclair comes calling with a threat and an offer. Sinclair, like Parris, seeks knowledge that the rest of the world deems heretical: mastery over Death itself, a direct challenge to God. Unlike Parris, Sinclair believes the answer lies in the mysterious alchemical fifth element known as quintessence... and he believes it can only be found on a legendary island at the very edge of the earth, where the western ocean pours into the void and the sun itself sinks to die every night. Parris and his inquisitive daughter, Catherine, soon find themselves caught up in Sinclair's voyage, a journey fraught with both miracles and peril.
REVIEW: Walton establishes an excellent, imaginative alternate world, where the earth is flat and alchemy is real... then burdens it with stiff characters and Christian subtexts until the whole story flounders under the extra weight. It starts slow, but with enough intriguing hints of otherness to keep things interesting. Over time, it manages to pick up some steam, especially once they finally get clear of England and on their voyage of discovery. The peculiar flora and fauna of the lost land of Horizon (and the surrounding waters), riddled with quintessence, make for interesting mind's-eye candy. Ultimately, though, many of these interesting ideas fall flat. The manticores - sapient inhabitants of Horizon with a superficial resemblance to the legendary beast - rarely come into their own as more than plot devices, despite some tantalizing hints of their utterly alien, quintessence-based physiology and culture. The characters never quite live up to their potential, either, save in a few forced leaps of growth toward the very end. It all builds to a climax that hinges on the limits of humanity's powers over life and death, and where the line between Man's dominion over the world and God's dominion over eternity lies. I read this book because the premise looked neat, not because I wanted to be preached at by Walton's characters. Despite its undeniably imaginative setting, ultimately this book winds up feeling as flat as the world it creates.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Peter and the Starcatchers (Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson) - My Review
Airborn (Kenneth Oppel) - My Review
Arcana Universalis: Terminus (Chris J. Randolph) - My Review
David Walton
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: For years, the Spanish Inquisition has swept Europe, with whole towns being tortured and burned for heresies real and imagined. Thus far, Protestant England has been spared the torch... but, with young King Edward on the brink of death and the exiled Catholic Mary prepared to fight to inherit his crown, trouble is coming. Stephen Parris, a physician to the king, already presses his luck by daring to dissect dead bodies - a sure sign of sorcery, even in relatively enlightened England, and a secret that would cost him his job and his fortune should his liege discover it. Should the Papists come to power, mere imprisonment would seem a mercy - and, with a Catholic-sympathizer wife and an innocent daughter on the brink of womanhood to protect, he can't risk discovery. Nevertheless, one night the infamous alchemist Christopher Sinclair comes calling with a threat and an offer. Sinclair, like Parris, seeks knowledge that the rest of the world deems heretical: mastery over Death itself, a direct challenge to God. Unlike Parris, Sinclair believes the answer lies in the mysterious alchemical fifth element known as quintessence... and he believes it can only be found on a legendary island at the very edge of the earth, where the western ocean pours into the void and the sun itself sinks to die every night. Parris and his inquisitive daughter, Catherine, soon find themselves caught up in Sinclair's voyage, a journey fraught with both miracles and peril.
REVIEW: Walton establishes an excellent, imaginative alternate world, where the earth is flat and alchemy is real... then burdens it with stiff characters and Christian subtexts until the whole story flounders under the extra weight. It starts slow, but with enough intriguing hints of otherness to keep things interesting. Over time, it manages to pick up some steam, especially once they finally get clear of England and on their voyage of discovery. The peculiar flora and fauna of the lost land of Horizon (and the surrounding waters), riddled with quintessence, make for interesting mind's-eye candy. Ultimately, though, many of these interesting ideas fall flat. The manticores - sapient inhabitants of Horizon with a superficial resemblance to the legendary beast - rarely come into their own as more than plot devices, despite some tantalizing hints of their utterly alien, quintessence-based physiology and culture. The characters never quite live up to their potential, either, save in a few forced leaps of growth toward the very end. It all builds to a climax that hinges on the limits of humanity's powers over life and death, and where the line between Man's dominion over the world and God's dominion over eternity lies. I read this book because the premise looked neat, not because I wanted to be preached at by Walton's characters. Despite its undeniably imaginative setting, ultimately this book winds up feeling as flat as the world it creates.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Peter and the Starcatchers (Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson) - My Review
Airborn (Kenneth Oppel) - My Review
Arcana Universalis: Terminus (Chris J. Randolph) - My Review
Monday, June 2, 2014
Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
Mockingjay
(The Hunger Games trilogy, Book 3)
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Two years ago, Katniss Everdeen was just another girl, daughter of a healer and a coal miner in Panem's poorest district. Now, survivor of two Hunger Games and inadvertent inciter of rebellion, she is the Mockingjay... or, at least, that's how the rebels in District 13, and the anti-rebellion propaganda aired by President Snow of the Capitol, portray her. Inside, she's falling apart, plagued by memories of death and killing, the guilt of so many lives lost. Her former Games companion, Peeta Mellark, is being tortured by Snow, and her one-time love, Gale, has been consumed by the rebellion to the point where she hardly knows him anymore. But, then, she hardly knows herself after what she's had to do in the name of survival. In truth, the tactics of District 13's President Coin and the Capitol blur together into a seething sea of blood red and gunpowder black. The old Gamesmaster, Plutarch, has even converted to the rebel cause. It's as if the Games never ended - and the last thing any victor ever wants is to return to the arena, even if that arena comprises the whole of Panem. But she has no choice anymore. She must become the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion, or once again the Capitol wins and countless people will have died for nothing. So long as President Snow dies by her arrow, Katniss tells herself any sacrifice is worthwhile... even her own life.
REVIEW: A fast-paced and violent conclusion to the hit trilogy, Mockingjay starts with Katniss a shattered shell of her former self... a state she often reverts to during the course of the tale. The atrocities she's witnessed and committed, the stress of being used as propaganda (knowingly and unknowningly), have crashed down upon her in the worst way. She manages to pull herself together when it counts - usually - but still spends an inordinate amount of time confined to a hospital bed, drugged up for her own good. It's probably a more realistic portrayal of post-traumatic stress and survivor guilt than often gets shown in books, especially young adult books, and dealing with her trauma becomes an ongoing subplot, a challenge Katniss never quite bests but can only wrestle into submission when it rears its head. She isn't the only one who has been changed for the worse by the rebellion and the Hunger Games. Her fellow victors all bear their own scars in their own ways, and even those who never set foot inside the arena have been hardened by the Capitol's cruelties and the harsh realities of rebellion. The story itself ticks along decently, with plenty of twists and turns and an exceptionally high body count (higher, if one counts offscreen deaths and torture.) The conclusion is somewhat unexpected, though the ultimate payoff feels a little drawn out and shaky. Overall, though, it lives up to the promise of the earlier books.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Invasion (K. A. Applegate) - My Review
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) - My Review
Among the Hidden (Margaret Peterson Haddix) - My Review
(The Hunger Games trilogy, Book 3)
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Two years ago, Katniss Everdeen was just another girl, daughter of a healer and a coal miner in Panem's poorest district. Now, survivor of two Hunger Games and inadvertent inciter of rebellion, she is the Mockingjay... or, at least, that's how the rebels in District 13, and the anti-rebellion propaganda aired by President Snow of the Capitol, portray her. Inside, she's falling apart, plagued by memories of death and killing, the guilt of so many lives lost. Her former Games companion, Peeta Mellark, is being tortured by Snow, and her one-time love, Gale, has been consumed by the rebellion to the point where she hardly knows him anymore. But, then, she hardly knows herself after what she's had to do in the name of survival. In truth, the tactics of District 13's President Coin and the Capitol blur together into a seething sea of blood red and gunpowder black. The old Gamesmaster, Plutarch, has even converted to the rebel cause. It's as if the Games never ended - and the last thing any victor ever wants is to return to the arena, even if that arena comprises the whole of Panem. But she has no choice anymore. She must become the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion, or once again the Capitol wins and countless people will have died for nothing. So long as President Snow dies by her arrow, Katniss tells herself any sacrifice is worthwhile... even her own life.
REVIEW: A fast-paced and violent conclusion to the hit trilogy, Mockingjay starts with Katniss a shattered shell of her former self... a state she often reverts to during the course of the tale. The atrocities she's witnessed and committed, the stress of being used as propaganda (knowingly and unknowningly), have crashed down upon her in the worst way. She manages to pull herself together when it counts - usually - but still spends an inordinate amount of time confined to a hospital bed, drugged up for her own good. It's probably a more realistic portrayal of post-traumatic stress and survivor guilt than often gets shown in books, especially young adult books, and dealing with her trauma becomes an ongoing subplot, a challenge Katniss never quite bests but can only wrestle into submission when it rears its head. She isn't the only one who has been changed for the worse by the rebellion and the Hunger Games. Her fellow victors all bear their own scars in their own ways, and even those who never set foot inside the arena have been hardened by the Capitol's cruelties and the harsh realities of rebellion. The story itself ticks along decently, with plenty of twists and turns and an exceptionally high body count (higher, if one counts offscreen deaths and torture.) The conclusion is somewhat unexpected, though the ultimate payoff feels a little drawn out and shaky. Overall, though, it lives up to the promise of the earlier books.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Invasion (K. A. Applegate) - My Review
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) - My Review
Among the Hidden (Margaret Peterson Haddix) - My Review
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