Just Robyn
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Posts posted by Just Robyn
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Crstarlette, I read Kitchen years ago. I don't particularly remember it being food-related though...
It's delightful and bittersweet and lovely. Not so much food related but still a worthy read.
Well, shucks. But thanks.
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I finished Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce - about a girl who shows up at her parents' house on Christmas day after having disappeared twenty years earlier and saying she was gone for only six months, living with what her family calls "fairies," though she says they would never go by that term. The prose is simple, so it's a relaxing book, but it's very sad, so not necessarily comforting.
I also read The Magician's Nephew and started The Last Battle, the only two Narnia books I haven't/hadn't read, and I started in on Christmas reading with E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker.
Has anyone read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto? Does that count as a food book?
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My favorite fictional food-related book is "Like Water For Chocolate".
I love it too. It's so good, I'm afraid to read any other magic/food book because I'm afraid I'll spend the whole time thinking, Well, it's not as good as Like Water for Chocolate.
I did buy an epic fantasy based on her recommending it using words like "elegant". It is Last Song Before Night. In return I recommended she get around to reading the Rivers of London books, as a friend of hers has been pushing her to read them, too.
This looks great! So glad you mentioned it.
I wonder if I could get my youngest to do a read-along with me of one of the books from that list. He loved The Egypt Game, so he might go for The Velvet Room.
As for A Man Called Ove, I've been eyeing that one for a while now. Your post has me thinking I'll like it. It's only $4.95 at Audible as part of their Black Friday weekend sale. I might go ahead and pick it up, along with a few others. The list is quite extensive.
I got a couple from that list: Anatomies: A Cultural History of the Human Body for dh (He's loving it.) and Breakfast of Champions for me.
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I'd swap out the good wine for some good chocolate, but otherwise I'm in agreement!
**
A book-ish post ~
Kids explain how banned and challenged books helped them and even saved their lives
"Controversies over what books are taught in class or shelved in the school library typically start when an adult—usually a parent or community member—feels that a book selected by teachers and librarians is inappropriate, offensive or objectionable. Most often, the objections relate to sexual scenes, offensive language, or depictions of drug and alcohol use. Concerned adults worry that the book promotes ideas that conflict with their personal values and beliefs, or that children will imitate fictional characters and engage in undesirable behavior.
Ironically, some of the most frequently challenged books are the very books that young readers say are especially important and meaningful to them. Unfortunately, their views are rarely heard in the over-heated debates that often accompany book challenges. Instead, the adults – parents, school administrators, and school board members - make decisions about what kids should read without always appreciating how books with “controversial†content help young people learn and mature.
To explore the significance of controversial books for young readers, we asked authors of frequently challenged books to share messages they’ve received from their readers. So far, eight authors whose books we’ve defended – frequently, in some cases – have shared letters and messages they’ve received from readers: Chris Crutcher, Matt de la Peña, emily danforth, Ellen Hopkins, Lois Lowry, Wes Moore, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, and Rainbow Rowell...."
Regards,
Kareni
Thanks for posting this Kareni. I skimmed through the responses. It's nice to see how books have helped young adults through issues and feel better about themselves. I also see how out of it I am. I have only heard of two of those books. (The Giver and Eleanor and Park.)
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From the A Year of Reading the World Blog:
Turkmen book published in English
Partial quote...
Pretty cool. May have to put this one on my Christmas list.
That is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing.
Happy birthday, Robin!
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I read Some Kind of Fairy Tale a couple of years ago and really enjoyed both the story and his writing. I went on to read, The Limits of Enchantment. And am currently making my way through The Facts of Life also by Joyce. Still on the roster, The Sisters Weiss and the audio version of The Miniaturist.
I listened to a charming interview with Muriel Barbary, she of The Elegance of the Hedgehog fame. Stacia, I believe you read this a few years ago, yes? And enjoyed it? She has another book out, The Life of Elves, and I was so taken with the creative way her mind operated that I've put both of these on the tbr list. And lastly, I just bought book two of The Steerswoman series. I read book one a few years ago and have been meaning to get back to it. Rose, I think you might like this.
Great to know Joyce's other books are good too! I was looking at them on Goodreads, already thinking I'd like to try more of his books and surprised by how many there are. I started out just going to look into The Silent Land, which is mentioned on the cover of SKoFT, saw the list of books he's written and thought, When is Christmas break?
I'm another who enjoyed The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'm interested in The Life of Elves, but I read in some reviews that there will be a sequel, so I thought I'd wait until the second book was out. I'm interested in hearing what you think of it.
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I finished listening to Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. As one would assume from the title and the author, this is a good book for anyone who likes running, writing, and Murakami. I enjoyed it, but it's not for everyone. This isn't one of those books that spends so much time on universal themes that most people will like it whether or not they have an interest in the surface topic.
Then I listened to Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I appreciated seeing how the author's worldview changed and grew as he studied, observed, met new people, traveled, etc. ETA: And the ways in which it remained the same - what things stuck with him and may stick with him forever (and, of course, some of those things are positive).
I just started listening to Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale by Jack Zipes, and I've been reading Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce. I found SKoFT on this list of books to read around Christmas time. I like it so far. It's easy to read, has a nice setting, has magical elements without necessarily belonging in the SF/F section of the library.
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That goes right along with the book I read on the history of fairy tales. Thanks!
Congrats, Stacia!
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(Unfortunately, I have had too much time spent lately at appointments, today's being one of our beloved cats starting chemo for lymphoma.)
:grouphug:
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M--, the more I think about it, the more I think you really threw down the gauntlet by sullying the Vonnegut pics with the King Arthur books & chessboard.
Really. Really!?!
Boy, Stacia. We are just going to disagree on this one. I thought it was the perfect pairing, a nice set of books to live and die beside.
As for Flufferton, I definitely don't read enough of it. Austen is the only author I've read off that list. The Susan Branch looks lovely, and I do intend to read Anne of Green Gables sometime.
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I finished Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner. This started rough. The content of the first couple of chapters didn't seem interesting enough to match the density of the text. Like, All those words and you were just saying fairy tales have magic? No kidding. And too often stories were used as examples without a summary or excerpt of them, so if I hadn't read the story the example was useless. It got much better, imo, after that. As I perceive it, the history it gave is less one of how fairy tales have evolved or changed (though there is some of that in there) and more one of how our use and interpretation of them has changed or gone in different ways: nationalistic, political propaganda, Freudian interpretations, Jungian interpretations, feminist revisionings, uses of magical realism. I enjoyed it and found it interesting. There is a long list of further reading recommendations at the back of the book.
I read Dante's Paradiso, and with that one, I'm just glad I did it and it's done.
On my middle ds's urging I started the Explorer series - a set of three graphic short story anthologies. I read the first two and am waiting for the third to get transferred from one library branch to the one I go to. These are shelved in the children's section at my library, but my ds is almost 13, and he still likes them.
I also read Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle. Thank you, Rose, for suggesting the hard copy. The artwork really is gorgeous, and for me, kept the book from a two-star rating. Information was given in unnatural dialogue that should have been told by a narrator. And the ending didn't work for me. I felt he forced the character to do the currently PC thing without setting her up with the proper motivation to make that decision. I'm not against the decision she made or against revisioning a fairy tale into a form that is today's PC; I just didn't see how the decision fit the character as I had seen her so far. Can't really say more without spoilers.
I am currently reading lit. mags. and listening to Haruki Murakami's short memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
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From the New York Times ~ Natalie Babbitt, 84, Dies; Took On Immortality in ‘Tuck Everlasting’ by Sam Roberts
"Natalie Babbitt, a celebrated children’s author and illustrator whose ruminative novel “Tuck Everlasting,†about a family’s immortality, found a fervent readership and inspired two films and a Broadway musical, died on Monday at her home in Hamden, Conn. She was 84...."
Do you have favorites of her books? In my house, we enjoyed Tuck Everlasting and The Search for Delicious.
Regards,
Kareni
Dh and I watched the movie of Tuck Everlasting on a plane once and thought it was boring, then middle DS read the book a couple years ago and he thought that was boring, but I still have hope that it's a book I'd enjoy and intend to read it at some point. Maybe I'll listen to it.
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Ok, I have a question for you guys which is going to sound suspiciously like asking for homeschool advice . . . but y'all are the ones I want to ask, so I am posting it here anyway!
Do the writers and readers among you have favorite literary magazines? Print versions, I mean. We've been getting Scientific American for years, and dd never reads it. In the interests of addressing the child I have, I thought it might be nice to get her a subscription to a literary magazine, but I don't really know what to choose. Something that would expose her to the contemporary literary world, and that might include both nf/lit crit and short stories/poetry? I know of The New Yorker and The Atlantic and Harpers - are these good choices, or is there something else folks would suggest?
TIA!
My favorite literary magazine is Zoetrope. It contains only visual art and short stories. In each issue, one of the short stories has been turned into a movie. I could send you an issue. For poetry, I subscribe to Rattle, and I think I could send an issue of this one, too. One magazine that might have all you're looking for is Carve. In addition to short stories, nonfiction and poetry, they have some sections that might interest a writer:
+What We Talk About: In-depth interviews with each author
+Story Statshot: Surprising facts on each story's journey to publication
+Decline/Accept: We declined it; another publication accepted it
+One to Watch: Discover what's up and coming in the literary world
Asimov's might be a good genre option.
There are a bazillion literary magazines, and you might look through some of the magazines listed on the Pushcart Rankings to find what you're looking for. I could also send copies of Black Warrior Review (assuming I ever get around to reading the copy on my desk) and Blue Monday Review (though this one just went on hiatus, and we'll just have to wait and see if they ever come back from it, and with this one as with the last - I still need to read the issue I would send).
Let me know if you want any of these!
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So what counts as an epic? I think if I fill that blank, I,ll have the bottom bingo row. It will even have fulfilled its probable purpose, in my case - I never would have read Voltaire, otherwise.
Nan
A hero goes on a quest. Dictionary.com says:
noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upona hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style: Homer's Iliad is an epic poem.
and
resembling or suggesting such poetry:
an epic novel on the founding of the country.I read The Lord of the Rings, but there must be something shorter. There are many trilogies and series but on an epic fantasies list, Goodreads lists some standalone books too, such as The Princess Bride, The Hobbit, Good Omens, The Neverending Story and The Once and Future King (if you want to call that one book). Another list has Beowulf and The Epic of Gilgamesh.
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I would highly suggest getting a hard copy or an illustrated ebook version of The Sleeper and the Spindle. It's kind of a picture book/graphic novel and the images add so much to the story.
Oh! Thank you. My library has a print version too, so that's what I'll get. I imagine you've saved me at least from disappointment, maybe confusion.
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Jenn, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe appears to be one of those books my husband might enjoy. Unfortunately it is not in our library system. Shout out to Kareni--if you see an Amazon deal on it, would you let me know? In the meantime, I see that our library system has some other books by Kij Johnson which I'll pick up for him to let him test the waters.
I loved her book of short stories, At the Mouth of the River of Bees. You (or your dh) can read or listen to some of her stories for free online.
"The Man Who Bridged the Mist" (<<This is a download.) was probably my favorite from the book.
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Today I finished listening to The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which was lovely to listen to. Neil Gaiman narrates it himself and does a great job, imo. The story is both sweet and sad and reminded me a bit of Coraline. I don't feel like there's a lot to say about this one. It's pretty typical and isn't really thought provoking or truly interesting in either content or structure, just a well-told story - a comfort read, despite mild scariness. My library also has The Sleeper and the Spindle on Overdrive, so I'll probably listen to that one soon.
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Today in the mail I received my order of the Arthur Rackham Fairy Tale Book. This book was one of my favorites as a child and a lot of it was because of the illustrations. I collect children's illustrated books (though my collection is small)/ I was just so happy to get this book condition. Here is a link to the Amazon page which has another book of his illustrations and a look inside so you can see examples. https://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Rackham-Treasury-Full-Color-Illustrations/dp/0486446859/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=03BC7W6KYQ7G3FCHZN46
Skimming through the sample on Amazon, this illustration grabbed me.
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I read Helen Oyeyemi's What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. Loved it. (Also, her books Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird would also fit for that category.) I was actually surprised in your link from earlier re: fairy tale adaptions that some of her books were not listed. Of the three I've read of hers, Mr. Fox is still my favorite.
Thank you, Stacia. I do have Oyeyemi on my to-read list because you brought her books to my attention. I feel certain I'll love Mr. Fox if I can get myself to read it (and the only reason I haven't is that I must have been reading something else). That reading list has a lot of books I've never heard of, which is awesome if they're good, since it gets old having the same books recommended on every list, and just weird if they're not good. My fingers are crossed for awesome.
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I haven't finished a book this week and probably won't. This week I spent more time with magazines and newspapers along with binge watching three seasons of The Killing. I am taking a break from it.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
The Killing is the last show I remember that kept me up all night, unable to sleep or tear myself away from the show.
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That was great, thanks!
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I finished The Body by Stephen King, which completes a blackout on my BINGO card. Here's my list of BINGO books, by column.
B
Female Author - Gutshot by Amelia Gray
Historical - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Pick Based on the Cover - Driving Without a License by Janine Joseph
Translated - Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Epic - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
I
Published 2016 - The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente
Revisit an Old Friend - Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Over 500 Pages - Dune by Frank Herbert
Banned - A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Nautical - The Island of Last Truth by Flavia Company
N
Number in the Title - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Fairy Tale Adaptation - The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
Library Free Space - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Mystery - Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous
18th Century - The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
G
Dusty - Salt Water Amnesia by Jeffrey Skinner
Written in Birth Year - The Body by Stephen King
Classic - The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Color in the Title - The Blue Fox by Sjon
Aurthurian - The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White
O
Picked by a Friend - Distant Light by Antonio Moresco
Play - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Nonfiction - Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Nobel Prize Winner - Demian by Hermann Hesse
Set in Another Country - A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
I'm curious about the fairy tale adaptations others chose. What did you read and what did you think of it?
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So post Halloween thoughts, DH and I were talking about hubris the other day. I thought hubris was a character's downfall through his or her own tragic flaw, but DH thought it was specifically excessive pride. Turns out, he was right, but I wondered what was the term for a character's flaw causing his downfall. Do any literary gurus know? I've found hamartia, but I'd never seen the term before an internet search.
Does anyone have any good books where the character's flaw (not necessarily pride) leads to her downfall?
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Madame Bovary
Inferno :laugh: (Not the main character, just all the others.)
Fight Club sort of
How about books where the character's flaw brings him success? (Here one might also put "Fight Club sort of.")
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Sadie, :grouphug: to you and your dd.
My introduction to studying poetry in school was so upsurd that I have to tell you all about it. I think I was in fifth grade and the teacher decided we should study poetry by studying song lyrics. Okay, that could really be good, right? After all, the Nobel Prize committee awarded Bob Dylan a literature nobel and there certainly are a lot of poetic lyrics with good themes to discuss. But this older teacher was completely clueless. So we got songs like I Don't like Spiders and Snakes and Smoking in the Boys Room. I was not impressed. But that was typical of the school I went to and just one of many reasons I self educated myself because I knew I wasn't getting a good education. So I would find old textbooks that had been discarded and read those. (My poetry unit hadn't come from any textbook, just what the teacher thought up).
I like poetry. I also liked to hear Poetry corner on NPR when I was driving my dd to co-op or activities. W. B. Yeats is probably my favorite poet.
I had a similar "education." We listened to the Beastie Boys in class one year, another year we "wrote" diamante poems.
I *love* Dover Beach. I had very few decent teachers at my parochial high school, but my English teacher was wonderful (had him 3 of 4 years) and he introduced us to Victorian poetry, and to carpe diem/Elizabethan poetry, and those are among my favorites to this day. It's interesting how with poetry, in particular, the poetry we read in our youth really sticks with us. I think that's a common experience, I've read others saying so. Do BAW-ers find that to be true? Is your favorite poetry the poetry you read when you were a teenager? What are some of your favorites?
When I was in high school, I loved A Night Without Armor by Jewel. I re-read it as an adult and liked it. I could see why I loved it as a teen. My favorite poem in the book as an adult was different from my favorite poem in the book as a teen, and none of the poems would be in my top ten or twenty or ? (not sure how far down it would be) today, but I have read far more poetry now than I had then, so all that means is that the more you read, the more poems you will find that stick with you.
Now that we're talking about poetry, I'm going to be brave enough to post a link to a poem I like very much... I found it online when I was looking for something else.
http://citylore.org//wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Georgia_Poetry_21st-century.pdf
On page 4 the poem I love is "Lucky Love" by Giorgi Lobjanidze- the alternate pages are in Georgian and in English, so scroll down to see the whole thing. I love his description of Nefertiti making the house 'into a gallery' and specially the idea that love changes geography: 'the Nile river flows into the Mtqvari' (the main river flowing through Georgia's capital city). Hope you enjoy it.That was lovely, and I had just recently been wishing for more good examples of ekphrastic poetry (other than "Ode to a Grecian Urn"). Thank you for sharing.
I listened to Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. I felt like I agreed with her on some general level (things worth doing are difficult), but not completely (and I'd rather not elaborate and start some sort of conversation about parenting styles and beliefs). I also wished she would acknowledge the financial and geographical barriers that many (most?) families have that she did not and explain what her POV would be if she could not afford to get better and better instructors for her daughters as they improved (or if she could not afford music lessons, or any private lessons, at all) and if she could not work with her daughters nights and weekends (due to working two jobs, or perhaps due to some other family obligation, or?) since she says her method only works if the child continues to experience success (defined by her (it seems) as always being the best or at least amazing, not defined as being happy or pretty darn good). (Not wanting to hear her speak on this matter so that I can employ her methods, and not looking for how others have used or adapted her methods, only pointing out what I consider an issue with her book.)
I listened to two hours (1/5) of The Lost City of Z, then abandoned it. It was too meandering for me. Next I'll try listening to The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and I am currently reading Stephen King's The Body, which will be my BaW BINGO book for published in birth year.
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Book a Week 2016 - BW 49: Delectable December
in The Chat Board
Posted
Mum2, Stacia and anyone else, I am in for the January Murakami read. Judging by what I see on Goodreads, maybe none of us has read Norwegian Wood? Of course, if we all read a different book, that's fun too. Just throwing it out there.
I use cookbooks, the Internet, Clean Eating magazine, sometimes eMeals. Cookbooks I have and like are
The Just Bento Cookbook (We don't have bento boxes; we just like some of the recipes.)
Twelve Months of Monastery Soups
And after checking it out from the library and making the brownie recipe, I'm sure the next cookbook I'll buy is Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.
On the Internet, I often just type in what I'm looking for and see what pops up. Sometimes it's from allrecipes.com. Sometimes it's some blog I've never heard of. I don't subscribe to or frequent any food blogs except A Spicy Perspective,though I'm sure there are a lot of great ones. But dh and my kids and I all love to watch the Tasty videos. In fact, my middle ds and I were just watching some and planning what to bake for Christmas goodies.