I read A Better Man by Louise Penny, a Chief Inspector Gamache mystery.
Gamache is definitely helping with that reading slump I was having.
I donât know if itâs just that I havenât read one in a while, but I particularly enjoyed A Better Man. Itâs one of those âYouâre missing clues! Youâre missing possibilities!â mysteries, where there are 3 characters Gamache and the rest are not even considering for most of the book, but Penny is giving you some clear clues (that may or may not be relevant). Also the very long story arc continues to change, which adds some interest.
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Been reading to my kid.
We finished Charlottes Web (twice) and now reading Laura Ingalls Wilder (little house on the prairy books).
Charlotteâs web is a gorgeous pastoral about the cycle of life and death. The entire book is about trying to save a pig from slaughter.
The little house books on the other hand are:
"Pa saw a bear. Pa shot the bear with his gun. Now weâll have lots of meat for winter!
Pa found a pig in the woods. So Pa shot the pig with his gun. I helped him chop it up and salt it. Then we hung the pieces up to dry. Now weâll have even more meat for the winter!"
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It is also quite weird to watch Disney+ after school, and then read Grimm and Anderson at night.
âOh yes, it is weird that in the movie version pigeons donât peck out anybodyâs eyes. Hm⌠wonder if they forgot that.â
Is that how they were originally written or is it rewritten as a childrenâs book?
I know there was controversy in how Native Americans were portrayed, is it apparent?
and real or overblown
They were originally childrenâs books. And honestly they do pretty good as childrenâs books. Lots of long descriptions of things like churning butter and cleaning a gun, which are both kind of interesting and easy to read/understand.
I havenât seen any PoC so far, but thereâs 8 frickinâ books. Checking the internet now, it looks like Little House on the Prairie has them moving into âIndian Territoryâ. It looks a bit complicated. The NAâs are smelly and naked. The neighbors hate NAs. And Ma is kind of racist and talks about how if you had an Indian kid theyâd have ugly brown eyes. Pa (who is the voice of reason) is pretty Woke-- and argues a few times that the NAâs are fundamentally good. The kids are in-between and raise some moral questions.
Probably okay, unless your kid has brown eyes and wants the bluest eye.
Ma says, âThe only good Indian is a dead Indian.â Multiple times. But Laura sees a papoose and falls in love.
I read those books a few times. Why no one ever put Anne of Green Gables in my hands, I donât know.
Finished âUs Against You,â the sequel to âBeartown.â
Pretty good.
My mother literally put that into my daughterâs hands
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So, I was not much into Anne, but I read a standalone book by LM Montgomery called a Tangled Web, which I found to be really interesting.
Never read them. Mrs. S says probably too boring this year.
Iâm interested in what people think is good vs bad to read to kids. I think Iâm mostly banking on the notion that if she just read a lot sheâll end up okay.
The weirdest by far, I think is the tendency for movies, books, and games to switch freely between animals as people and animals as dinner. Not because they have a vegetarian message (although a few do), but just because kids love anthropomorphized animals.
So, âAnimal Farmâ is next up?
I donât think I read that one, but when I discovered LM Montgomery (when I should have been studying for actuarial exams) I read everything my library had of hers. I didnât love all the later Anne books as much as I loved the earlier ones but I did enjoy her other books. Iâm gonna have to look for this one.
So I was listening to 400 Souls this week and heard, âI was first owned by Benjamin Chew of Philadelphia.â Wait. What? The Cliveden Chews? Text my MIL, do a little googling, yep.
Richard Allen was the man, born a slave but later allowed to purchase his freedom. He became one of the founding fathers of the AME church.
History is definitely not my forte so when I make a connection like that itâs interesting to me.
This book is beautifully put together. The audio is incredible, but I also bought the hardcopy bc I felt like there might be certain stories I would want to return to.
Itâs actually a collection of essays, with each one covering some aspect of African American history in a 5 year time span. Some focus more on the history but many connect that historical event to some more recent event. I thought I was pretty well informed on some of these issues but â it turns out Iâm not. Iâm learning a lot.
Currently reading The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2/3 through), Giovanniâs Room by James Baldwin (1/2 through) and just started Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2 chapters into each).
Quo Vadis
I didnât really know what it was about, before I started, but I like it (even though I am definitely picking up historical inaccuracies, but thatâs ok)
bout to start The Lost World - Crichton
need to go sci-fi
Oh my ⌠I am not sure Michael Crichton really qualifies as sci-fi. Here are a few authors that I love: Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Ian M Banks, Robert Charles Wilson, Ian McDonald, China Mieville, Neal Stephenson, Ian R MacLeod, Charles Stross and Michael Swanwick.
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how so? Many of his books are based on technology that does not exist. to me that is a classic definition of sci-fi, even if it doesnât occur in the future or occur on another world