*Spoiler Warning* I’m not spoiling a lot, but I’m not going out of my way to avoid discussing later plot points. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson I originally read Snow Crash ages ago. Maybe when I was in high school or college? I didn’t like it very much, though I also didn’t remember much about […]
Archive | books
Reading Notes September 2018
We were on the road for almost two full weeks in September. And the first week was getting ready to go and the final week was recovering from the trip. I didn’t get much reading done at all. Finished in September: 1. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik A fantasy novel that’s not so much a […]
Reading Notes August 2018
Finished in August 1. Endless Water Starless Sky by Rosamund Hodge The sequel to Hodge’s Bright Smoke Cold Fire. This duology (I hate that term, but there’s not a great word for a pair of books) is a sort of postapocalyptic adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The world is broken, and has been for a […]
Reading Notes July 2018
Green Dolphin Street
Warning: Spoilers. An acquaintance who was halfway through the book wasn’t liking it much and asked what it was that I liked about it. This isn’t exactly what I told her, but this is what I found I had to write out before I knew what to say to her about the book. I’m not […]
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
**Spoilers** Just so you know, I don’t avoid giving away plot points. If you haven’t read the book and don’t like having things ruined, come back later. “The real story isn’t half as pretty as the one you’ve heard. The real story is, the miller’s daughter with her long golden hair wants to catch a […]
Child Sized Dangers Part Two: Better Drowned Than Duffers
Arthur Ransome’s juvenile novel Swallows and Amazons opens with the receipt of a telegram. Roger and the other Walker children have been waiting eagerly for the response from their father to their letters begging that they be allowed go go and camp on the island in the lake where they are vacationing. Their mother can’t […]
Child-Size Dangers: A Training Ground for the Young
Part One: A Training Ground for the Young In the Dresden Files short story collection Brief Cases there is a short story titled “Zoo Day” in which Harry takes his daughter Maggie to the zoo. The story is divided into three parts, the first narrated by Harry, the second by Maggie, and the third by […]
The Witch’s Brat, the Story of a Healer Monk
The Witch’s Brat by Rosemary Sutcliff This is one of those books whose title will put off some readers before they even open the book or find out what it’s about. The story actually has almost nothing at all to do with witches and much more to do with monks. The title character is a […]
“Savages” and “Natives” in Swallows and Amazons
To the person who asked me how I “handle the racism and derogatory imagery of natives & savages” in the Swallows and Amazons series with my children. First, as to the word “savages”, I first define it and give its etymology, like I do with many words we encounter that I want to discuss like […]