Apocalypse Kings
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 5.6
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, YA? Adventure/Fantasy/Horror/Humor/Mystery
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Adedayo thought he'd been cursed when objects started flying off shelves around him. It wasn't until his Nigerian grandmother came to stay with his family in Dublin that he learned about the hidden community of sorcerers and adepts and other bearers of magic, a family trait that skipped his mother but apparently manifested in him. Unfortunately, she spoke little English and he knew almost no Yoruban, and she passed away before teaching him more than a few small tricks - but she left him a strange wooden box and a cryptic phrase he struggles to understand. Inside the box are three powerful gods, trapped since the wars against the Faceless Ones... and when Adedayo inadvertently unleashes them, something terrible is bound to happen.
Fortunately, the next day at school, he meets a peculiar new girl: Valkyrie Cain, another mage. Along with her partner Skulduggery Pleasant - a literal walking skeleton - she has come to track down the so-called Apocalypse Kings before they can enact their eons-old plan. They have reason to believe that the gods are currently hiding somewhere in his school... but their efforts to blend in as they search are hardly seamless. The two investigators may need a little help with this job, but what can an untrained sorcerer who can barely summon a spark do against a trio of vengeance-minded deities?
REVIEW: This novella feels like an oddball in the series, and it is, written later as a (near) standalone project for World Book Day. This may explain why it feels a little neither-here-nor-there; it ostensibly takes place after the fifth book (which I just read via audiobook earlier this very week), but Valkyrie and Skulduggery don't quite "feel" like the characters I just left. Of course, this is written from an outsider's perspective - not just outside the core duo, but outside the Dublin magical community - but even given Adedayo's ignorance of the quite terrible and pivotal horrors that just elapsed in Dublin's magical community (though one might think he would've noticed the citywide lockdown, even if he didn't know the truth), this story just doesn't seem to fit where the chronology claims it fits.
Disregarding some wobbly continuity with the larger whole, the story has a more or less similar aesthetic, humor melding with horror. Some deliberate tweaks of school story cliches add to the humor, such as when the obligatory "meet the cliques" lunchroom talk reveals that nobody's really that shallow as to identify themselves solely by one aspect of their personalities. Adedayo himself is technically 15, but reads a bit younger, possibly because he's such a neophyte to magic and also because he's still very confused and unsettled about his own life, not sure what he even wants to do now, let alone in the future; he's in debate club because he was told he needs an extracurricular for future college applications, but he hates arguing and always loses. When Valkyrie arrives after the gods escape, he's relieved that there's someone older and more experienced to take charge. Granted, she's only a year older, but she acts almost adult in her confidence, not too surprising given what she's been through. Skulduggery, meanwhile, tries to go undercover as a schoolteacher, complicated by the fact that it's been ages - almost literally - since he had to interact with "mortals", and he's not even used to wearing a (false) flesh-and-blood face. When things inevitably go wrong, Adedayo ends up being the one who has to step up. Things wrap up pretty well by the end.
I came close to shaving a half-star for that "this doesn't quite fit" sense, which made me feel a bit more like I was reading rather good but noncanon fanfic than an official series entry, but wound up giving it the benefit of the doubt.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Playing With Fire (Derek Landy) - My Review
Once There Was (Kiyash Monsef) - My Review
Akata Witch (Nnedi Okorafor) - My Review
Friday, October 25, 2024
The Truth About Animals (Lucy Cooke)
The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
Lucy Cooke
Basic Books
Nonfiction, Animals/History/Science
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since humans first began noticing the natural world, misconceptions have abounded - not just in folklore or myths, but in the works of apparent experts and theoretically learned people... and not just in ancient times. It's not all just harmless ignorance, either; bad press and flawed understanding can substantially harm conservation efforts and the future of our planet. Zoologist and author Lucy Cooke examines several species that have borne the brunt of our species's seeming inability to separate fact from fiction and superstition from science, from bats to storks and eels to hippos, even the venerated panda.
REVIEW: Anthropomorphizing nature is one of the oldest human traits, turning them into supernatural agents or morality lessons or embodiments of our own aspirations or failings or plain old wishful thinking. Unfortunately, this idealized thinking can prove a serious problem when one is trying to understand the truth, as demonstrated in this examination of several key species. One would think that we'd be over that by now as a species, or at least science would be over that as a discipline, with our advanced understanding of so many fields and our increasing awareness of our own faults, but, as Cooke demonstrates, even in modern times myths and mysteries persist, with many secrets the natural world is still reluctant to offer up for our edification.
With a focus on the "Western" world's views of nature and how the roots of science and understanding were so hopelessly entangled with ideas that appear quite ridiculous now (but at the time were often implicitly believed to be true), Cooke explores the history of natural science and the people who both advanced and regressed the field. From the notion that eels spontaneously generated in river mud to beavers having hidden human-like communities complete with law enforcement, many false notions were rooted in the ancient classical world, where armchair experts repeated travelers tales as gospel truth, often with a dash of moralizing that would be raised to an art form in medieval bestiaries. Animals like the sloth were dismissed and denigrated by Europeans as "useless", when in fact their slow-motion lifestyle is such a successful way to survive in their native habitat that it evolved twice, while bats were treated as agents of evil in much of the world because theoretically intelligent H. sapiens brains apparently could not wrap their minds around something that couldn't be neatly defined as "beast" or "bird", and hyenas were considered cowardly and nasty because they just plain look less noble than a lion (who, it turns out, scavenge hyena kills more often than hyenas scavenge lion kills, despite popular media depictions). Even scientists in "enlightened" ages often skewed data based on their own religious or moral assumptions, even deliberately burying observations they deemed "unsuitable" for general knowledge (such as the sex lives of penguins - especially ironic, given how the nature documentary March of the Penguins was embraced in conservative circles as depicting an ideal monogamous family). Politics also invariably come into play; for many years, it was a commonly understood "fact" that North American animals (and, of course, natives) were inferior to their European counterparts in every conceivable way... a notion that was difficult to dislodge when most of the "experts" penning natural science resided in Europe. Even today, politics warps popular perceptions: for instance, "panda diplomacy" has created a highly artificial image of the panda as a cutesy but clumsy and naturally deficient "teddy bear" in desperate need of human intervention to even reproduce, when in fact human interference and captive breeding has created an entire population of animals so divorced from their very capable wild cousins that reintroductions almost invariably end in disaster. (As for the notion they can't even breed competently, that's yet another result of humans projecting human ideas and moralities onto wild animals; pandas breed just fine outside of captivity, just not very well in monogamous pairings that are forced on them in zoos.) The only thing they need from people is to be left alone with sufficient natural habitat to survive... but that's something nobody seems particularly interested in hearing, let alone doing, even in their native country. And then there's how people have used/abused animals through the ages, where even the best intentions often go awry; the African clawed frog, once a boon in the days before simple chemical strip pregnancy tests, is responsible for the worldwide spread of a toxic fungus devastating global amphibian populations after they escaped or were released into nonnative environments.
As part of her research, Cooke talked with many working conservationists and scientists who are doing their level best to dispel old myths and bad press before time runs out on the conservation clock, as it has for too many species. Misunderstandings and mysteries still plague the field, despite modern technology being brought to bear on matters such as eel reproduction (a reverse-salmon situation, where adults breed in the ocean and the young swim upriver to live for years until returning to the Sargasso Sea to breed... though, as of the book's writing, apparently even now nobody has witnessed the act). There is still so much to learn (and unlearn), even as a fresh tide of intentional ignorance seems to be rising globally in the form of authoritarian governments and would-be theocrats gaining traction.
At times, I'd hoped for a little less focus on the "Western" perception of animals, and maybe a little more on how native populations considered the creatures they lived beside for countless generations (though even they were not above anthropomorphizing and other misunderstandings). The whole is a plea for humans to step off our pedestal and actually look at the world around us, that we are part of (little as many seem willing to admit it). Seen on their own terms, even the "lowest" and "ugliest" animal is valuable and wonderful, with much to teach us if we're willing to learn... which we can't do until we stop insisting we're the pinnacle to which all others should kneel in subservience.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Frans de Waal) - My Review
Being a Beast (Charles Foster) - My Review
Animal Wise (Virginia Morell) - My Review
Lucy Cooke
Basic Books
Nonfiction, Animals/History/Science
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since humans first began noticing the natural world, misconceptions have abounded - not just in folklore or myths, but in the works of apparent experts and theoretically learned people... and not just in ancient times. It's not all just harmless ignorance, either; bad press and flawed understanding can substantially harm conservation efforts and the future of our planet. Zoologist and author Lucy Cooke examines several species that have borne the brunt of our species's seeming inability to separate fact from fiction and superstition from science, from bats to storks and eels to hippos, even the venerated panda.
REVIEW: Anthropomorphizing nature is one of the oldest human traits, turning them into supernatural agents or morality lessons or embodiments of our own aspirations or failings or plain old wishful thinking. Unfortunately, this idealized thinking can prove a serious problem when one is trying to understand the truth, as demonstrated in this examination of several key species. One would think that we'd be over that by now as a species, or at least science would be over that as a discipline, with our advanced understanding of so many fields and our increasing awareness of our own faults, but, as Cooke demonstrates, even in modern times myths and mysteries persist, with many secrets the natural world is still reluctant to offer up for our edification.
With a focus on the "Western" world's views of nature and how the roots of science and understanding were so hopelessly entangled with ideas that appear quite ridiculous now (but at the time were often implicitly believed to be true), Cooke explores the history of natural science and the people who both advanced and regressed the field. From the notion that eels spontaneously generated in river mud to beavers having hidden human-like communities complete with law enforcement, many false notions were rooted in the ancient classical world, where armchair experts repeated travelers tales as gospel truth, often with a dash of moralizing that would be raised to an art form in medieval bestiaries. Animals like the sloth were dismissed and denigrated by Europeans as "useless", when in fact their slow-motion lifestyle is such a successful way to survive in their native habitat that it evolved twice, while bats were treated as agents of evil in much of the world because theoretically intelligent H. sapiens brains apparently could not wrap their minds around something that couldn't be neatly defined as "beast" or "bird", and hyenas were considered cowardly and nasty because they just plain look less noble than a lion (who, it turns out, scavenge hyena kills more often than hyenas scavenge lion kills, despite popular media depictions). Even scientists in "enlightened" ages often skewed data based on their own religious or moral assumptions, even deliberately burying observations they deemed "unsuitable" for general knowledge (such as the sex lives of penguins - especially ironic, given how the nature documentary March of the Penguins was embraced in conservative circles as depicting an ideal monogamous family). Politics also invariably come into play; for many years, it was a commonly understood "fact" that North American animals (and, of course, natives) were inferior to their European counterparts in every conceivable way... a notion that was difficult to dislodge when most of the "experts" penning natural science resided in Europe. Even today, politics warps popular perceptions: for instance, "panda diplomacy" has created a highly artificial image of the panda as a cutesy but clumsy and naturally deficient "teddy bear" in desperate need of human intervention to even reproduce, when in fact human interference and captive breeding has created an entire population of animals so divorced from their very capable wild cousins that reintroductions almost invariably end in disaster. (As for the notion they can't even breed competently, that's yet another result of humans projecting human ideas and moralities onto wild animals; pandas breed just fine outside of captivity, just not very well in monogamous pairings that are forced on them in zoos.) The only thing they need from people is to be left alone with sufficient natural habitat to survive... but that's something nobody seems particularly interested in hearing, let alone doing, even in their native country. And then there's how people have used/abused animals through the ages, where even the best intentions often go awry; the African clawed frog, once a boon in the days before simple chemical strip pregnancy tests, is responsible for the worldwide spread of a toxic fungus devastating global amphibian populations after they escaped or were released into nonnative environments.
As part of her research, Cooke talked with many working conservationists and scientists who are doing their level best to dispel old myths and bad press before time runs out on the conservation clock, as it has for too many species. Misunderstandings and mysteries still plague the field, despite modern technology being brought to bear on matters such as eel reproduction (a reverse-salmon situation, where adults breed in the ocean and the young swim upriver to live for years until returning to the Sargasso Sea to breed... though, as of the book's writing, apparently even now nobody has witnessed the act). There is still so much to learn (and unlearn), even as a fresh tide of intentional ignorance seems to be rising globally in the form of authoritarian governments and would-be theocrats gaining traction.
At times, I'd hoped for a little less focus on the "Western" perception of animals, and maybe a little more on how native populations considered the creatures they lived beside for countless generations (though even they were not above anthropomorphizing and other misunderstandings). The whole is a plea for humans to step off our pedestal and actually look at the world around us, that we are part of (little as many seem willing to admit it). Seen on their own terms, even the "lowest" and "ugliest" animal is valuable and wonderful, with much to teach us if we're willing to learn... which we can't do until we stop insisting we're the pinnacle to which all others should kneel in subservience.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Frans de Waal) - My Review
Being a Beast (Charles Foster) - My Review
Animal Wise (Virginia Morell) - My Review
Thursday, October 24, 2024
Mortal Coil (Derek Landy)
Mortal Coil
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 5
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, YA Adventure/Fantasy/Horror/Humor/Mystery
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since becoming skeleton detective Skulduggery Pleasant's apprentice and partner, Stephanie - now Valkyrie Cain - has kept very few secrets from him... but this time, she has a very good reason. Ever since realizing that she herself is the ill-omened Darquesse, destined (or so the psychics insist) to destroy the world, she has been searching on her own for a way to change the future. Surely she would never do such terrible things on her own, so someone must gain control of her true name. Thus, she hatches a dangerous plan to seal that name so that nobody can turn it against her - only realizing how far in over her head she has wandered when it's too late.
As she's coping with that, the fallout of the destruction of Dublin's Sanctuary, the ruling body of Ireland's hidden magical community, continues to resonate through the country. Tracking down the perpetrator brings them no closer to figuring out who was behind it; the attack was too big and well orchestrated to be the work of one rogue mage. Now a foreign assassin known as the Tesseract is methodically and ruthlessly cleaning up loose ends before any of those threads lead back to the real culprit... culprits who may well already be infiltrating the new Council of Elders as Dublin's sorcerers regroup. When dark Remnants - malevolent shadow spirits that infest the living like parasites - are unleashed by the secretive necromancers, Dublin's magical community may finally be destroyed for good - and, against all of Valkyrie's will and sacrifices and efforts to the contrary, Darquesse may be unleashed.
REVIEW: After a slightly rushed fourth installment, the series returns to form here, beginning a new and darker journey for Valkyrie, Skulduggery, and their associates... one that will change everything going forward, making enemies of friends and leaving more than one dead.
After learning of her foreseen destiny as Darquesse, Valkyrie tries her hand at solo problem solving, erroneously believing that her previous adventures, not to mention the initiative that drove her to do the near-impossible and rescue Skulduggery from the dimension of the banished Faceless Ones, mean she's up to tackling any magical problem that comes her way. (She also, naturally, is not sure what her other magical companions would do if they learned the truth, given how ruthless sorcerers can be when facing threats less extreme than this.) The bargain she strikes to seal her name takes the series well and truly into horror territory, showing just how far she's come from the relatively innocent girl who never suspected the truth about magic. She's also 16 now, and dating, which marks another transition as the series leaves behind any lingering traces of middle grade territory (which were already ghostly thin in the previous installment) to enter young adult territory. Her boyfriend Fletcher may technically be a couple years older, but he's still rather boyish and awkward in relationships... and the outcast vampire Caelan makes no secret of his own growing attraction/obsession, which Valkyrie does not intentionally encourage even as she can't help but be a bit intrigued despite herself. Fortunately, she has friends to help keep her grounded, though given the secrets she's hiding she spends less time around them than she probably should at this stage in her magical training and overall life circumstances. (The fact that she'll soon have a baby sibling yet she's still over-reliant on her mirror reflection stand-in - which has become unusually outspoken for what's supposed to be an unthinking construct - shows just how much she's disappearing into the magical world and the loner role of "Valkyrie Cain", leaving the ordinary life of "Stephanie" behind, for all that she keeps insisting that she's excited to be a big sister and misses ordinary family time.) Without spoilers, the Valkyrie at the end of the book is a much different young woman than the one at the start, having done a lot of growing up and endured some very hard knocks and harsh lessons along the way... but, then, the entire Dublin magical community is not the same by the end, either.
As for the main arc, after the necromancers inadvertently trigger the release of the captured Remnants, things take a very, very dark and dangerous turn. They fixate on Darquesse as their future leader and messiah, someone who will give them the world of death and chaos they've always craved, and they're more than willing to destroy Dublin to get it, spreading like a dark plague through magical and mortal worlds alike. Skulduggery and company have their work cut out for them as they race to keep ahead of the danger... then race to try to find and reactivate the magical Soul-Catcher device that was used to trap them the last time they were unleashed, assuming the mechanism is still functional after so many decades of neglect. Through the influence of the Remnants, friends become foes in the blink of an eye; with the exception of Skulduggery, who is already dead, nobody can be trusted. This makes for some strange bedfellows by the time the climax rolls around, and some very interesting developments.
As in previous installments, there's little down time and no shortage of surprises, as well as sprinklings of humor throughout. Also as in previous segments, the end does not undo nearly all the damage wrought during the story, leaving things very different than where they began. I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) - My Review
The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 5
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, YA Adventure/Fantasy/Horror/Humor/Mystery
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Since becoming skeleton detective Skulduggery Pleasant's apprentice and partner, Stephanie - now Valkyrie Cain - has kept very few secrets from him... but this time, she has a very good reason. Ever since realizing that she herself is the ill-omened Darquesse, destined (or so the psychics insist) to destroy the world, she has been searching on her own for a way to change the future. Surely she would never do such terrible things on her own, so someone must gain control of her true name. Thus, she hatches a dangerous plan to seal that name so that nobody can turn it against her - only realizing how far in over her head she has wandered when it's too late.
As she's coping with that, the fallout of the destruction of Dublin's Sanctuary, the ruling body of Ireland's hidden magical community, continues to resonate through the country. Tracking down the perpetrator brings them no closer to figuring out who was behind it; the attack was too big and well orchestrated to be the work of one rogue mage. Now a foreign assassin known as the Tesseract is methodically and ruthlessly cleaning up loose ends before any of those threads lead back to the real culprit... culprits who may well already be infiltrating the new Council of Elders as Dublin's sorcerers regroup. When dark Remnants - malevolent shadow spirits that infest the living like parasites - are unleashed by the secretive necromancers, Dublin's magical community may finally be destroyed for good - and, against all of Valkyrie's will and sacrifices and efforts to the contrary, Darquesse may be unleashed.
REVIEW: After a slightly rushed fourth installment, the series returns to form here, beginning a new and darker journey for Valkyrie, Skulduggery, and their associates... one that will change everything going forward, making enemies of friends and leaving more than one dead.
After learning of her foreseen destiny as Darquesse, Valkyrie tries her hand at solo problem solving, erroneously believing that her previous adventures, not to mention the initiative that drove her to do the near-impossible and rescue Skulduggery from the dimension of the banished Faceless Ones, mean she's up to tackling any magical problem that comes her way. (She also, naturally, is not sure what her other magical companions would do if they learned the truth, given how ruthless sorcerers can be when facing threats less extreme than this.) The bargain she strikes to seal her name takes the series well and truly into horror territory, showing just how far she's come from the relatively innocent girl who never suspected the truth about magic. She's also 16 now, and dating, which marks another transition as the series leaves behind any lingering traces of middle grade territory (which were already ghostly thin in the previous installment) to enter young adult territory. Her boyfriend Fletcher may technically be a couple years older, but he's still rather boyish and awkward in relationships... and the outcast vampire Caelan makes no secret of his own growing attraction/obsession, which Valkyrie does not intentionally encourage even as she can't help but be a bit intrigued despite herself. Fortunately, she has friends to help keep her grounded, though given the secrets she's hiding she spends less time around them than she probably should at this stage in her magical training and overall life circumstances. (The fact that she'll soon have a baby sibling yet she's still over-reliant on her mirror reflection stand-in - which has become unusually outspoken for what's supposed to be an unthinking construct - shows just how much she's disappearing into the magical world and the loner role of "Valkyrie Cain", leaving the ordinary life of "Stephanie" behind, for all that she keeps insisting that she's excited to be a big sister and misses ordinary family time.) Without spoilers, the Valkyrie at the end of the book is a much different young woman than the one at the start, having done a lot of growing up and endured some very hard knocks and harsh lessons along the way... but, then, the entire Dublin magical community is not the same by the end, either.
As for the main arc, after the necromancers inadvertently trigger the release of the captured Remnants, things take a very, very dark and dangerous turn. They fixate on Darquesse as their future leader and messiah, someone who will give them the world of death and chaos they've always craved, and they're more than willing to destroy Dublin to get it, spreading like a dark plague through magical and mortal worlds alike. Skulduggery and company have their work cut out for them as they race to keep ahead of the danger... then race to try to find and reactivate the magical Soul-Catcher device that was used to trap them the last time they were unleashed, assuming the mechanism is still functional after so many decades of neglect. Through the influence of the Remnants, friends become foes in the blink of an eye; with the exception of Skulduggery, who is already dead, nobody can be trusted. This makes for some strange bedfellows by the time the climax rolls around, and some very interesting developments.
As in previous installments, there's little down time and no shortage of surprises, as well as sprinklings of humor throughout. Also as in previous segments, the end does not undo nearly all the damage wrought during the story, leaving things very different than where they began. I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here.
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Dark World (Henry Kuttner) - My Review
Skulduggery Pleasant (Derek Landy) - My Review
The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) - My Review
Friday, October 18, 2024
Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies (June Casagrande)
Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies
June Casagrande
Tantor Audio
Nonfiction, Grammar/Humor
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Who (or should that be "whom"?) among us hasn't been the victim of a grammar snob? Ensconced in their ivory towers, surrounded by ancient grimoires containing mysteries of linguistic mastery, they rain thunderbolts down upon the lowly, uneducated peasants who dare split infinitives or misplace apostrophes or confuse homophones or otherwise abuse the holy English language with their cloddish colloquial manglings. Surely, we laypeople think as we cower from the experts' great and terrible wrath, they must be vastly more educated and overall better people than the rest of us. Right?
Wrong.
Syndicated grammar columnist June Casagrande peels back the curtain to reveal the grammar snobs' dirty little secret: they don't know much, if anything, more than we do about how the English language works. The "rules" they cling to with a zealot's fervor often depend on which source one consults, and even the sources can be vague. The only absolute rule is that one must communicate one's ideas clearly. In this book, Casagrande offers numerous tips and tricks to help clear up misconceptions about grammar and bring those snobs down a few pegs.
This audiobook version includes a few of Casagrande's grammar articles, not appearing in the print version.
REVIEW: Like so many things in life, grammar is a basic, useful idea that has been turned into something else entirely by a small handful of gatekeepers... not at all helped by how English as a language often defies logic (even before one takes into account language evolution and drift between various iterations of the language, chiefly England's English versus American English). Much of what we need to know we absorbed subconsciously as we learned the language; it's the attempts to pin down those lessons and bind them in a grammar book that can get so tricky and lead to so much squabbling and - frankly - bullying among know-it-alls. Almost every "rule" has some manner of exception, every style or formality contradicted by some equally-reputable source. Casagrande takes many humorous jabs at other grammar "experts" who love raining stones on others from their own glass houses, even as she offers explanations and hints on how to better understand the subject. It earned the extra half-star for making me snicker out loud at work more than once as I listened.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Who's... (oops) Whose Grammar Book is This, Anyway? (C. Edward Good) - My Review
Word Watch (Patricia McLinn) - My Review
Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Lynne Truss) - My Review
June Casagrande
Tantor Audio
Nonfiction, Grammar/Humor
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Who (or should that be "whom"?) among us hasn't been the victim of a grammar snob? Ensconced in their ivory towers, surrounded by ancient grimoires containing mysteries of linguistic mastery, they rain thunderbolts down upon the lowly, uneducated peasants who dare split infinitives or misplace apostrophes or confuse homophones or otherwise abuse the holy English language with their cloddish colloquial manglings. Surely, we laypeople think as we cower from the experts' great and terrible wrath, they must be vastly more educated and overall better people than the rest of us. Right?
Wrong.
Syndicated grammar columnist June Casagrande peels back the curtain to reveal the grammar snobs' dirty little secret: they don't know much, if anything, more than we do about how the English language works. The "rules" they cling to with a zealot's fervor often depend on which source one consults, and even the sources can be vague. The only absolute rule is that one must communicate one's ideas clearly. In this book, Casagrande offers numerous tips and tricks to help clear up misconceptions about grammar and bring those snobs down a few pegs.
This audiobook version includes a few of Casagrande's grammar articles, not appearing in the print version.
REVIEW: Like so many things in life, grammar is a basic, useful idea that has been turned into something else entirely by a small handful of gatekeepers... not at all helped by how English as a language often defies logic (even before one takes into account language evolution and drift between various iterations of the language, chiefly England's English versus American English). Much of what we need to know we absorbed subconsciously as we learned the language; it's the attempts to pin down those lessons and bind them in a grammar book that can get so tricky and lead to so much squabbling and - frankly - bullying among know-it-alls. Almost every "rule" has some manner of exception, every style or formality contradicted by some equally-reputable source. Casagrande takes many humorous jabs at other grammar "experts" who love raining stones on others from their own glass houses, even as she offers explanations and hints on how to better understand the subject. It earned the extra half-star for making me snicker out loud at work more than once as I listened.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Who's... (oops) Whose Grammar Book is This, Anyway? (C. Edward Good) - My Review
Word Watch (Patricia McLinn) - My Review
Eats, Shoots and Leaves (Lynne Truss) - My Review
The Dragon's Child and The Night of the Unicorn (Jenny Nimmo)
The Dragon's Child and The Night of the Unicorn
Jenny Nimmo
Recorded Books
Fiction, CH Collection/Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Author Jenny Nimmo presents two fantasy stories:
The Dragon's Child: The young dragon Dando, a late bloomer, cannot fly, and is accidentally left behind when the others migrate north... just when vicious monsters known as Doggins approach through the dark woods, and a ship full of dangerous humans arrives.
The Night of the Unicorn: A magical night full of shooting stars brings an old unicorn to the fields near young Amber's farm and starts an epic quest by aging chicken Hennie, a journey that will have consequences for the entire farming community.
REVIEW: As the descriptions likely imply, this pair of stories is fairly light in tone, cozy bedtime tales with some peril, some heart, and some whimsy.
The Dragon's Child was the stronger of the pair (though I may be biased, as I'm more of a dragon person than a unicorn person), telling the tale of a little underdog dragon who has to find a reason to grow up before he can fly - a reason he finds unexpectedly in a girl prisoner of the invading humans (who aren't quite ordinary humans), and the leader's spoiled princeling son. There's a hair more depth to everyone, even the baddies (except for the Doggins, of course), than one might expect in a fairy tale.
The Night of the Unicorn underplays the titular unicorn; it's more about the brave little chicken whose quest to find the old rooster William inadvertently weaves together many lives, human and animal. The result feels a little overlong and scattered and doesn't deliver the payoff that the first story offered, though it's generally enjoyable.
You Might Also Enjoy:
A Glory of Unicorns (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Dragons at Crumbling Castle (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
The Dragon of Lonely Island (Rebecca Rupp) - My Review
Jenny Nimmo
Recorded Books
Fiction, CH Collection/Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Author Jenny Nimmo presents two fantasy stories:
The Dragon's Child: The young dragon Dando, a late bloomer, cannot fly, and is accidentally left behind when the others migrate north... just when vicious monsters known as Doggins approach through the dark woods, and a ship full of dangerous humans arrives.
The Night of the Unicorn: A magical night full of shooting stars brings an old unicorn to the fields near young Amber's farm and starts an epic quest by aging chicken Hennie, a journey that will have consequences for the entire farming community.
REVIEW: As the descriptions likely imply, this pair of stories is fairly light in tone, cozy bedtime tales with some peril, some heart, and some whimsy.
The Dragon's Child was the stronger of the pair (though I may be biased, as I'm more of a dragon person than a unicorn person), telling the tale of a little underdog dragon who has to find a reason to grow up before he can fly - a reason he finds unexpectedly in a girl prisoner of the invading humans (who aren't quite ordinary humans), and the leader's spoiled princeling son. There's a hair more depth to everyone, even the baddies (except for the Doggins, of course), than one might expect in a fairy tale.
The Night of the Unicorn underplays the titular unicorn; it's more about the brave little chicken whose quest to find the old rooster William inadvertently weaves together many lives, human and animal. The result feels a little overlong and scattered and doesn't deliver the payoff that the first story offered, though it's generally enjoyable.
You Might Also Enjoy:
A Glory of Unicorns (Bruce Coville) - My Review
The Dragons at Crumbling Castle (Terry Pratchett) - My Review
The Dragon of Lonely Island (Rebecca Rupp) - My Review
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