So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the...
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This graphic novel is an excellent example of my belief that children's books are not just for children. The story is simple enough for kids to understand, but with enough depth to interest adults, and to keep us guessing, as well as anxiously awaiting the next book in the series.
The characters are an interesting mix of human-looking humans and cartoon-y animal and robot sidekicks/supporting characters, and the artwork is something to be savored. A quick reader will be able to finish any one installment of this series in an hour or less, but you could easily spend hours looking at the detail on each page, particularly when visiting any of towns in the universe(s) featured there.
This series makes me wish I had kids to share it with, and I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys graphic novels, adult or kids!
This novel, like the tall and eerie spires of Hill House, towers above all other haunted house novels, and from the opening paragraph, the reader knows that they are in for a spooky treat.
Lest you think this book is for horror fans only, far from it -- this is a thinking person's novel of suspense, mystery, humor, and a well-written treatise on relationships (married, strangers, friends, or lovers, both straight and lesbian), depending on the mindset of the reader. I'm proof of how each reading can give you a different experience.
"State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett is easily going to land in my top 10 list (and maybe my top FIVE list) of my best books of 2011. Simply put, I can't recommend it enough.
I doubt that I'll ever make it to Brazil, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't end up in the thickest, most remote sections of the jungle there. And now I know that I'll never have to, because the Patchett absolutely takes you there.
Marina, a medical researcher for a drug company in Minnesota (home state shout-out, yeah!) gets word from her boss that her coworker and friend Anders has died in the jungle while there to check on a mysterious researcher working there for the company. She is sent there to follow his trail, both by the company, which wants to know how the doctor's research is coming along, and by Anders's wife, who wants to know what happened.
The story and settings competed for my interest, and yet melded so well that one didn't distract from the other. Her descriptions of winter in Minnesota had me shivering (in August!), and during the time in the jungle, the creatures there had me jumping at each whine of a mosquito in my ear.
Yes, there are some improbable details in this book, but being that escape from the ordinary and the ability to see a place that I'll never visit are among the main reasons that I read, it didn't really bother me.
This book will hold your interest like an anaconda -- just TRY to put it down mid-read, you'll see.
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(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" covered a lot of my favorite themes and genres -- a love of plucky young heroines, historical novels (even those as recent as the 1950s), English country house stories, mysteries, quirky characters, and humor. This book has all that, and more, rolled into one satisfying read.
I look forward to more novels from Alan Bradley starring the funny and interesting Flavia de Luce.
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(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
This book is not only an entertaining read and resource book for gardeners and lovers of exotic plants. It's also a great help for writers of murder mysteries in search of a new and interesting way to kill off their characters. (Maybe someone will start a series of whodunnits that take place in a greenhouse!)
The author, Amy Stewart, has obviously done a great deal of research to find the most interesting true stories of plants that kill, maim, and just plain make us itch.
There's even something for those people who might not care to read the warnings of what that innocent looking plant in your garden might really be -- the illustrations, copper etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs are lushiously detailed.
Unfortunately, the smaller cartoonish drawings by Jonathon Rosen, which might have been cute and entertaining in another book, are overshadowed here, looking a little like a dandelion gone to seed placed next to a rose.
I only wish this book was longer!
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(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
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LyndaT has commented on (6) products.
The Stone Keeper: Amulet, Book One (Amulet #01) by Kazu Kibuishi
LyndaT, September 1, 2011
This graphic novel is an excellent example of my belief that children's books are not just for children. The story is simple enough for kids to understand, but with enough depth to interest adults, and to keep us guessing, as well as anxiously awaiting the next book in the series.The characters are an interesting mix of human-looking humans and cartoon-y animal and robot sidekicks/supporting characters, and the artwork is something to be savored. A quick reader will be able to finish any one installment of this series in an hour or less, but you could easily spend hours looking at the detail on each page, particularly when visiting any of towns in the universe(s) featured there.
This series makes me wish I had kids to share it with, and I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys graphic novels, adult or kids!
The Haunting of Hill House (Penguin Classics) by Shirley Jackson
LyndaT, September 1, 2011
This novel, like the tall and eerie spires of Hill House, towers above all other haunted house novels, and from the opening paragraph, the reader knows that they are in for a spooky treat.Lest you think this book is for horror fans only, far from it -- this is a thinking person's novel of suspense, mystery, humor, and a well-written treatise on relationships (married, strangers, friends, or lovers, both straight and lesbian), depending on the mindset of the reader. I'm proof of how each reading can give you a different experience.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
LyndaT, August 18, 2011
"State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett is easily going to land in my top 10 list (and maybe my top FIVE list) of my best books of 2011. Simply put, I can't recommend it enough.I doubt that I'll ever make it to Brazil, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't end up in the thickest, most remote sections of the jungle there. And now I know that I'll never have to, because the Patchett absolutely takes you there.
Marina, a medical researcher for a drug company in Minnesota (home state shout-out, yeah!) gets word from her boss that her coworker and friend Anders has died in the jungle while there to check on a mysterious researcher working there for the company. She is sent there to follow his trail, both by the company, which wants to know how the doctor's research is coming along, and by Anders's wife, who wants to know what happened.
The story and settings competed for my interest, and yet melded so well that one didn't distract from the other. Her descriptions of winter in Minnesota had me shivering (in August!), and during the time in the jungle, the creatures there had me jumping at each whine of a mosquito in my ear.
Yes, there are some improbable details in this book, but being that escape from the ordinary and the ability to see a place that I'll never visit are among the main reasons that I read, it didn't really bother me.
This book will hold your interest like an anaconda -- just TRY to put it down mid-read, you'll see.
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
LyndaT, January 14, 2010
"The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" covered a lot of my favorite themes and genres -- a love of plucky young heroines, historical novels (even those as recent as the 1950s), English country house stories, mysteries, quirky characters, and humor. This book has all that, and more, rolled into one satisfying read.I look forward to more novels from Alan Bradley starring the funny and interesting Flavia de Luce.
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart
LyndaT, September 16, 2009
This book is not only an entertaining read and resource book for gardeners and lovers of exotic plants. It's also a great help for writers of murder mysteries in search of a new and interesting way to kill off their characters. (Maybe someone will start a series of whodunnits that take place in a greenhouse!)The author, Amy Stewart, has obviously done a great deal of research to find the most interesting true stories of plants that kill, maim, and just plain make us itch.
There's even something for those people who might not care to read the warnings of what that innocent looking plant in your garden might really be -- the illustrations, copper etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs are lushiously detailed.
Unfortunately, the smaller cartoonish drawings by Jonathon Rosen, which might have been cute and entertaining in another book, are overshadowed here, looking a little like a dandelion gone to seed placed next to a rose.
I only wish this book was longer!
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
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