Home » Discussion Forums » Pollyanna's Booklist » July-August-Sept 2012 recommendation thread
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| Re: July-August 2012 recommendation thread [message #50859 is a reply to message #50664 ] |
Sat, 21 July 2012 18:31   |
 librarykat
Messages: 566
Registered: October 2008
Location: Redneck Riviera |
Senior Member |
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At the ALA Annual Conference, one of the publisher's editors handed me the hardcover of Hope Larson's graphic novel adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. I read it on the flight home from Anaheim. I love it, I like Larson's depictions of the characters.
I met a lovely young cartoonist at ALA, Christina Strain - her current project is a webcomic called The Fox Sister, and I recommend you all check it out (http://thefoxsister.com). Strain, who is half-Korean, has set the story in Korea of the late 1960s - her main character is a shaman who hunts her older sister, an evil nine-tailed fox demon called a Kumiho. Strain generally does a page a week; the first chapter is available as a hardcover on the website. Oh yes, there's a great dog in the comic - its name is Soot Bull.
Strain and I had several great conversations at ALA, comparing our lives as hapa children of American servicemen and Asian women (although she's young enough to be my daughter!), and I was able to conduct a video interview with her for ALA.
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| Re: July-August 2012 recommendation thread [message #51685 is a reply to message #50664 ] |
Fri, 07 September 2012 19:55 |
sojo
Messages: 2
Registered: August 2012 |
Junior Member |
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Hello all,
For those of you who are interested in SciFi with characters you can't let go of, consider reading Mary Doria Russell's brilliant first book, The Sparrow, and it's sequel, The Children of God. Note: don't miss the sequel - it has a very satisfying end.
These were the first books I have ever reread immediately upon finishing.
Here are some reviews:
Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them. Rating: A.
― Entertainment Weekly
The soul-searching nature of the story of The Sparrow, combined with Russell’s incredible grasp of narrative structure and control of character development, make this novel an experience not to be missed.
― Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The novel’s prose is exceptionally well-crafted, the characterization exceptionally detailed, the climax exceptionally moving, but it is nevertheless a conscientious science-fiction novel which does not skimp on its careful description of how an interstellar expedition might be mounted. Nor is it in any way a comforting book… Even those who approve of its moral conclusions…will inevitably find much to unsettle them along the route by which those conclusions are attained. The Sparrow is, in essence, a challenging book–which is, in my view, the best kind.
― Brian Stableford, Interzone Magazine
A startling, engrossing, moral work of fiction.
― Colleen McCullough, New York Times Review of Books
Also, I definitely recommend her third book A Thread of Grace, a thoroughly beautiful story set in WWII northern Italy.
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| Re: July-August 2012 recommendation thread [message #51688 is a reply to message #51685 ] |
Fri, 07 September 2012 23:13 |
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LadyGrace
Messages: 30
Registered: June 2012
Location: Maine |
Member |
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| sojo wrote on Fri, 07 September 2012 19:55 |
Hello all,
For those of you who are interested in SciFi with characters you can't let go of, consider reading Mary Doria Russell's brilliant first book, The Sparrow, and it's sequel, The Children of God. Note: don't miss the sequel - it has a very satisfying end.
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AGREED. These are incredible books. Also, any book that can be described by the catch-phrase "Jesuits in space" is something you want to check out  . These books will break you in so many ways, and are so intelligently written, and so beautiful.
The Sparrow was our community read a few years ago in my college town, and I helped organize an event bringing Mary Doria Russell to campus. I even got to go out for drinks with her after the evening presentation. She is an absolutely delightful, plucky woman. She even told off the president of our university when he said something sort of insulting during the Q&A. (Everyone was all, "Did you know who he was?" and she was all, "It wouldn't have mattered if I did!") I digress. But these books are wonderful, and I second the recommendation.
-Grace Makley
www.gracemakley.com
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| Re: July-August 2012 recommendation thread [message #51738 is a reply to message #50664 ] |
Sun, 09 September 2012 18:21 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1080
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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E Nesbit: "The Magic World" - Magical short stories.
From the beginning of 'The Princess and the Hedge-pig':
" 'But I don't see what we're to do,' said the Queen for the twentieth time.
'Whatever we do will end in misfortune,' said the King gloomily; 'you'll see it will.'
They were sitting in the honeysuckle arbour talking things over, while the nurse walked up and down the terrace with the new baby in her arms.
'Yes, dear,' said the poor Queen; 'I've not the slightest doubt I shall.'
Misfortune comes in many ways, and you can't always know beforehand that a certain way is the way misfortune will come by: but there are things misfortune comes after as surely as night comes after day. For instance, if you let all the water boil away, the kettle will have a hole burnt into it. If you leave the bath taps running and the waste-pipe closed, the stairs of your house will, sooner or later, resemble Niagara. If you leave your purse at home, you won't have it with you when you want to pay your tram-fare. And if you throw lighted wax matches at your muslin curtains, your parent will most likely have to pay five pounds to the fire engines for coming round and blowing the fire out with a wet hose. Also if you are a king and do not invite the wicked fairy to your christening parties, she will come all the same. And if you do ask the wicked fairy, she will come, and in either case it will be the worse for the new princess. So what is a poor monarch to do? Of course there is one way out of the difficulty, and that is not to have a christening party at all. But this offends all the good fairies, and then where are you?"
Of course, our bell-ringers might find 'Belinda and Bellamant' to be of especial interest:
"Now in all the bells there are Bell-people - it is their voices that you hear when the bells ring. All that about its being the clapper of the bell is mere nonsense, and would hardly deceive a child. I don't know why people say such things."
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: July-August 2012 recommendation thread [message #51866 is a reply to message #50664 ] |
Sun, 16 September 2012 17:29 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1080
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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John Dickson Carr: "The Blind Barber" - Henry Morgan has a quite weird - not to mention wild - tale to tell Dr Gideon Fell, about a boat trip involving a compromising film (no, not that kind of compromising - a high-up US government official caught in the party spirit - no, not political party spirit, party-party spirit - lets rip about what he really thinks about his colleagues, and all their government decisions - while being filmed by his nephew - who then thinks he destroyed the film - except - and this will come as no surprise after one has come to know Curtis Warren a little better - he destroyed a perfectly harmless film of bears at the Bronx Zoo instead... ), an emerald elephant that keeps appearing and disappearing in the most disconcerting way... and that's not to mention the disappearing corpse... Can Fell sort out this mess?
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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July-August-Sept 2012 recommendation thread
