netgalley review: cozy classics: moby dick | ****

Cozy Classics: Moby Dick by Jack and Holman Wang

Okay, first of all, the felted objects and photography in the Wangs' retelling of Moby Dick -- I read the digital version, but IRL it's a board book for babies -- are PERFECT. ADORABLE, CLEVER, BEAUTIFUL, PERFECT. I cannot say enough good things about them.

Telling the story of Moby-Dick in a baby-friendly way is a challenge, I suppose. Cozy Classics: Moby Dick uses twelve photographs, and pairs up a single word with each photograph. It can be confusing if you haven't read the classic text; I've never read Melville's version and have only a passing familiarity with the original tale. I could gather the gist of it by reading this board book, but who knows how accurate I was.

I do think the book, as a whole, could have benefited from having a unified theme in the words instead of trying to follow the original storyline; my 18-month-old could understand "boat" but there's a picture of an (ADORABLE) angry Ahab -- at least, that's who I think it is based on my sad half-knowledge -- that's been paired with the word "mad," which is a concept she really doesn't get yet. And "floating" didn't stand a chance. If all the words had been objects, it would have been smooth sailing (har har), but the mix of objects and emotions and action words (like "sail" and "find") is a little harder for her to grasp.

That wouldn't stop me from picking up a copy of this book, though. I'd probably just change the words as I read it, to something more concrete for the little ones. It'd be worth it. The felting! The photography! AAAH SO CUTE.


(3.5/5)

netgalley review: the curse of dracula | **

The Curse of Dracula by Marv Wolfman

I'm going to blame dial-up for this, even if that makes me sound like a time traveler. I requested The Curse of Dracula from NetGalley because HELLO, I LOVE DRACULA, as in the old-timey book. Stoker's classic spooked me deliciously and unexpectedly, so I saw that Dark Horse Comics was offering a collection of a series that involved a more modern Dracula story, and figured it would be fun.

HOWEVER. My dial-up was acting up so I didn't see the cover before requesting the book; if I had seen it, I would have known it wasn't my cup of tea, based on the artwork alone. Once I downloaded it, though, I figured I might as well read it anyway -- I mean, I like comics, and I like supernatural stories, so it's not terribly out of my range.

I'll just be upfront here: I didn't like The Curse of Dracula. The story felt incomplete, and I like my TPBs to feel more contained within themselves. The artwork was okay, but came off as dated, and I found it confusing at times, although part of the difficulty might have been that I was viewing it on a computer screen.

I also had a problem connecting with the characters. The story is essentially this: a gang of vampire hunters are . . . hunting vampires. Also Dracula is involved in a presidential race. Don't look for a conclusion to either storyline, though, because it all just kind of STOPS at the end of the book. Maybe the series was never completed? The good guys were the vampire hunters, but they were just sketches, for the most part, and when one of their number was seriously injured, I honestly had to go back to the beginning of the book to remember who he was. The plot isn't cohesive and it's hard to be properly horrified when you're trying to figure out if you've heard of "the sanitarium" before.

It's disappointing, too, because I really, really wanted to like The Curse of Dracula after I read the foreword and introduction by Wolfman -- the foreword is from the reissue, and the introduction is from the 2005 edition -- who obviously has affection for his series and for Gene Colan, the artist behind The Curse of Dracula and Wolfman's previous series, Tomb of Dracula. Unfortunately, I enjoyed reading those bits of text way more than I enjoyed the story itself.

Maybe hardcore horror fans who are into comics would get more of a kick out of The Curse of Dracula than I did; I might just be the wrong audience for it. Anyway, it was interesting to go outside my comfort zone, but I think I'll scamper back home for a while.


(1.5/2)

netgalley review: alice in wonderland | **

Alice in Wonderland by Rod Espinosa 

Have we created more adaptations of Alice in Wonderland than strictly necessary? NEVER. I love the story -- I still mourn the loss of the big fat Alice/Looking Glass combo I owned as a kid -- so I'm always up for a new version.

Espinosa's approach to the story, in graphic novel form, looked promising, and it's cute enough, but I may have expected too much from it. I prefer a little more twist in my Alice adaptations, but this a very straightforward rendering that hits most of the high points of Carroll's story while retaining a clean, easy-to-understand plot that moves forward quickly. It might be too straightforward for some readers, but it doesn't drag or become a jumbled mess, despite many panels that are simply Alice making surprised faces or exclaiming at something or other.

I don't read a lot of manga, and the art isn't the sort I usually dig, but Espinosa's style is charming at times: I love the Cheshire Cat, and the hedgehogs in the croquet scenes were adorable. On the whole, though, the drawings didn't add anything to my enjoyment of the story. I don't think that's Espinosa's fault; it's either an art style you like or it's one that leaves you cold, and it's pretty subjective. Do you like the cover? If so, you'll probably like what's inside the book.

Overall, this variation of Alice in Wonderland didn't do much for me -- too simplistic and drawn in a style that left me meh for the most part -- but I do think that it would be a great way to introduce younger kids to the original story. My eldest is currently on a graphic novel kick and I can easily imagine her loving Espinosa's rendition.


(2/5)

book review: odd and the frost giants | ****

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Everything I know about Norse mythology I learned from a superhero movie. Which, weirdly, helps a lot when you find yourself in the middle of a fairy tale -- that's probably not the slot it technically falls into, but I can't think of it as anything else -- that involves Thor and Asgard and the Rainbow Bridge, especially when the story is so short there's no space for the author to explain most of the mythology.

Odd and the Frost Giants was sitting on my bookshelf, ready to be returned to the library because Rabbit decided it was not for her, and I thought "SELF, YOU NEED TO READ SOMETHING ADORABLE" and decided to give it a go. Gaiman's story is, indeed, adorable. I liked it a lot. I don't know if I would have liked it as much if I hadn't seen Thor a couple of months ago; I probably would have been a little lost. Also, on the one hand, I wish Odd had been less of a hollow character, but on the other hand, the way he's written kind of works with the whole fairy tale thing.

The illustrations are charming, too. I think I'm eventually going to find a copy of this to stick on the bookshelf.


(4/5)

book review: unholy night | **

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith  

The two-star rating isn't fair, but I didn't enjoy Unholy Night very much. Grahame-Smith tells a good story, tweaking the established framework of the Nativity to build a compelling tale filled with adventure, revenge, and a little mysticism; however, the novel's bad guys are really indefensibly bad, and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that any story involving King Herod is going to be heavy on the horrible.

These things would be fine if I weren't such a delicate over-invested flower, and I think for most readers -- readers who are able to separate themselves from the story -- this would be a rollicking adventure. For those who are familiar with the New Testament, it might be fun to spot divergences and see which familiar names make appearances in Unholy Night. There are swordfights! Very carefully described swordfights. There's a lot of cutting and hacking and ducking and plunging.

And that's where I ran into a problem, because a lot of the violence in Unholy Night is directed toward kids, BABIES, and while it's historically accurate and everything, that's just not something I can handle when I'm reading for pleasure. I can't totally deal with the adult-on-adult violence, either, to be honest -- Grahame-Smith describes it way too lovingly -- but the huge amount of kid stuff takes it over the edge into Have-to-Skim Territory.

I don't know, there are enough times in real life where I have to batten down the hatches so that I don't become useless to my own kids; I try not to purposefully chase after things that wreck me. I'm sure this means I'm missing out on a lot of great literature but it also keeps me (relatively) sane.

But that's my special snowflake thing, and obviously many people CAN deal, and for those people, I think this is a good book. I have a few minor quibbles, like the fact that the the only character who's fully fleshed out is Balthazar, the protagonist, and that the dialogue felt too modern at times given the historic setting. And I think the ending felt a little rushed. But then, I was skimming a lot of it so for all I know, it was perfectly timed and felt faster than it is.

So, after all that long explanation, you can see why I feel like my two stars are a little unfair, but they're based on my enjoyment, right? So I'm going to leave it.


(2/5)


Related: because I liked the full cover a lot -- here are some process shots.

past/prologue

One of the big, happy, good things about Goodreads is -- I mean, I like many things about the site, but this is one of my favorites -- the Reading Challenge widget, which makes counting the books I've read VERY easy and lets me know when I've slipped behind my goal.

As far as I can recall, this is the first year since 2005 where I've hit my reading goals, and I chalk it up to a combination of the visibility of the widget and the magical powers of my big gift last year, a Kindle Fire.

I'm not going to bother trying to copy all the reviews I've done on Goodreads to good english right now, but I might do that later. For now, I'll just try to get back into the swing of things with a few mini-reviews of the last things I finished, five Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight TPBs. These were the books that sent me over the tipping point and helped me surpass my reading goal (forty-nine books) for 2012.

---------------------------------

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home (Season 8, #1) by Joss Whedon

I'm not going to try to sound all scholarly or like an actual reviewer up in here; Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight is like crack-laced popcorn to me, and it's impossible for me to be objective. The original teevee series meant a lot to me, and Season Eight feels like an extension of that series -- same cleverness, familiar characters, Monster-of-the-Week-style subplots with a Major Big Bad hovering over it all -- and I can't help but love it.

I don't know if non-fans would think as highly of it -- maybe having the characters' voices and mannerisms in my head already is an advantage? -- but I finished the first five TPBs in one night, and would have kept going if my library owned the others in the series. 

(5/5)

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future for You (Season 8, #2) by Brian K. Vaughan
 
 FAITH! I loved her storyline. The Giles-ness of it was an added bonus.

TOTALLY IRRELEVANT: some kid (I assume) drew ALL OVER this volume. I've never encountered this sort of stupidity in a library book before: at the beginning of the volume, the "artist" just lightly drew over already existing lines that indicated cleavage, but by the end of it s/he was adding nonsensical BOOBS!-related lines, adding nipples, etc. It was ridiculous. One of the hazards of borrowing library books -- better than finding food stuck between the pages, I guess. 

(5/5)

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wolves at the Gate (Season 8, #3) by Drew Goddard

Okay, the Dracula episode of the teevee series is one that I only half-watched, if that, so I don't get most of the Dracula/Xander interaction, and I'm kinda pissed that the cute relationship between Xander and Renee ended the way it did. I realize it made sense within the story but still, BOO. 

 (4.5/5)

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Time of Your Life (Season 8, #4) by Joss Whedon

I might have liked Time of Your Life a little better if I'd read Fray first. That whole storyline seemed confusing, then hand-wave-y, then rushed. Also I spent too many minutes trying to remember why I hated Kennedy so much. Maybe I should have rewatched season seven first, too.

I did enjoy the Big Reveal, though.

 (4.5/5) 

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Predators and Prey (Season 8, #5) by Jane Espenson

Predators and Prey . . . still good, but not as consistently likeable for me as the first four volumes.

I don't like Harmony. I have never found her as funny as the writers apparently do. The reality teevee show thing feels overdone; I just wish they could have found another way to get the anti-Slayer sentiment going. However, the non-Harmony-centric issues were pretty good, especially Safe and titular issue.

 (4/5)

HI HELLO AGAIN

So I'm back! Vox died a while ago, and I miss having a dedicated book review blog. I post reviews on Goodreads here and was cross-posting to LibraryThing until I got too lazy for that, but it's not the same.

And OBVIOUSLY the next step after growing too lazy for one type of cross-posting is trying another type!

We'll see how it goes.

announcement

Good English is on Vox now! Vox is pretty and shiny, you'll dig it:

goodenglish.vox.com/

In addition to reviews and book goal stuffs, I'm doing mini movie reviews and occasionally posting songs and videos and schtuff.

Let me know what you think! Add me if you have a Vox account!

!!!

thirty-two/seventy-five through thirty-five/seventy-five

I'm doing it again, yes. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll forget what I read if I keep waiting until I have time to fully describe each book. Boo, I suck.

32. Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand
interesting tidbits about goddess worship, good story with great characters. I want to read the UK version, which has a bunch of stuff that was edited out of the US version (probly to make it a faster read). (****)

33. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
meh. okay story, but I couldn't really get into any of the characters, and the plot just kind of floundered near the end. it could have been so much HOTTER hehe. (**.5)

34. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
MUCH better than The Mermaid Chair. basically, this little girl runs off and tries to find out who her mom was. I loved all of the characters and the story itself was told very well. (****)

35. Come to Me: Stories by Amy Bloom
Amy Bloom writes so well that it's almost disgusting. while I didn't enjoy this collection as much as I enjoyed A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, Come to Me was good in its own quiet way. the stories examine love and family -- the different definitions for each and the way they come together. (****)

fourteen/seventy-five through thirty-one/seventy-five

I'm cheating a little because otherwise I'll never catch up . . . briefest reviews ever, with stars for rating purposes (on a one-to-five scale).

14. Astonishing X-Men: Gifted by Joss Whedon
good and catchy! I definitely want to read the rest. (****)

15. Magical Witch Girl Bunny by Elizabeth Watasin (interview with Watasin here)
hard to follow sometimes, but cute. definitely a fluffy read. (***)

16. Close Range by Annie Proulx
definitely gives you a feel for Wyoming. (****)

17. Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner
chick lit, but WELL-WRITTEN chick lit. (*****)

18. To Have and to Hold by Jane Green (BARF)
cemented my loathing for Green. (*)

19. Love and Country by Christina Adam
okay, but Adam is WAY too fond of wordy flourish-filled metaphors. (***)

20. Passage by Connie Willis
one of those reads that takes a little while to catch on, but sticks with you forever. (*****)

21. As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann
hot but brutal. (****)

22. The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery
so delicate and pretty, even though it's a little dated. (****)

23. Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald
started out annoying, with Macdonald whining a lot and seeming xenophobic, but ended up in a better place. (***)

24. The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford
gritty, truthful, sad. (****)

25. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
very nice YA alternate-reality read with likeable characters. (****)

26. The Three Incestuous Sisters by Audrey Niffenegger -- 9/3/06
pretty novel told in pictures (what a depressing story, though). (****)

27. Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! a Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR by Jeff MacGregor -- 9/9/06
fun, and even more fun when you read it right before attending a race. (*****)

28. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder -- 9/16/06 (good review)
great little fantasy read. (*****)

29. The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue (sniffle) -- 9/24/06
sad and beautiful. (*****)

30. Not a Girl Detective by Susan Kandel -- 9/28/06
mediocre, which was disappointing considering Kandel's credentials. (***)

31. House Magic: The Good Witch's Guide to Bringing Grace to Your Space by Ariana -- 10/1/06
cute read, very open to interpretation. (****)

thirteen/seventy-five

After the poetry, I tried a little bit of another genre I've been neglecting, graphic novels. Marvel 1602, by the fab Neil Gaiman, was my first stop. Marvel superheroes + the seventeenth century = awesomeness. Very good, so good I'm looking at the sequel, even though Gaiman didn't write that one.

twelve/seventy-five

It has been forever since I finished a book of poetry. I love Adrienne Rich's voice and the words she chooses. I'm no good at poetry crit, so this will have to do: I enjoyed Dark Fields of the Republic, although it was a little difficult at times, and I'm keeping an eye out for more of Rich's work.

eleven/seventy-five

If you're looking for a good gothic YA novel, Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty is definitely it. Melodramatic, historical fiction with supernatural goodies mixed in. The sequel is out and I'm having to force myself to wait for the paperback.

ten/seventy-five

March won a Pulitzer Prize. Somehow. Geraldine Brooks's novel is well-paced, interesting, and pretty well-written, but I wouldn't say it was Pulitzer material. It was okay, not great.

It's a novel about the March pater's adventures during the War, and it gets the feeling of that time across well. It was kind of disorienting to think about his foibles, though, after all the adoration of him in Little Women.

Not a favorite but not a waste of time.

nine/seventy-five

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

Info about Frieda Hughes.
Her sometimes awkward poem re: the public's fascination with Plath:

Readers
by Frieda Hughes

Wanting to breathe life into their own dead babies
They took her dreams, collected words from one
Who did their suffering for them.

They fingered through her mental underwear
With every piece she wrote. Wanting her naked.
Wanting to know what made her.

Then tried to feather up the bird again.

The vulture with its bloody head
Inside its own belly,
Sucking up its own juice,

Working out its own shape,
Its own reason,
Its own death.

While their mothers lay in quiet graves
Squared out by those green cut pebbles
And flowers in a jam jar, they dug mine up.

Right down to the shells I scattered on her coffin.

They turned her over like meat on coals
To find the secrets of her withered thighs
And shrunken breasts.

They scooped out her eyes to see how she saw,
And bit away her tongue in tiny mouthfuls
To speak with her voice.

But each one tasted separate flesh,
Ate a different organ,
Touched other skin.

Insisted on being the one
Who knew best,
Who had the right recipe.

When she came out of the oven
They had gutted, peeled
And garnished her.

They called her theirs.
All this time I had thought
She belonged to me most.

published November 8th 1997 in The Guardian

And more Frieda.

eight/seventy-five

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett.

seven/seventy-five

Close Range by Annie Proulx.

Proulx's reaction to Brokeback Mountain's Best Picture loss:

For those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant, play it as it lays.

six/seventy-five

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory.

five/seventy-five

Sunshine by Robin McKinley.

four/seventy-five

Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner.