Review: Harriet Can Carry It

Harriet Can Carry It by Kirk Jay Mueller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I liked the rhyme, the illustrations and the Australian animals. I'd read this to Kait.



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Review: Dear Life: Stories

Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



So, so good. I sometimes wonder if I like short stories , but this collection makes it clear that I do. I particularly loved the four semi-autobiographical stories at the end, but there wasn't a disappointing story in the bunch. So much love for Munro.



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Review: Why Dogs Are

Why Dogs Are by Tana Thompson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



It's such a sweet story but I'm such a big atheist. I could see gifting this to a religious child, but I wouldn't read it to my own.



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Review: A Life For Nicholas

A Life For Nicholas by Matt Zachary

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This was a free kindle book and is a short prequel. Unfortunately it lacks depth and needed some editing. Too much happens in too few pages.



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Review: Find Yourself: a Poet's Journey

Find Yourself: a Poet's Journey by Feng Zhou

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



"There is joy in sudden descent
My child is like me at the time
Heading straight for his plane
And I return to the land at my journey's end"

It's hard for me to rare and review poetry. I've read little of it and I tend to find it washes over me, often with little comprehension.

I really liked the poems about Wang Yue. I remember the news report of the two year old run over by two trucks and ignored by those around her. So incredibly sad.



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Review: We the Animals

We the Animals by Justin Torres

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Interesting, though the ending felt a bit rushed. It tooke a bit to get into the style of writing, but once I settled into it, I enjoyed it.



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Review: Go the Fuck to Sleep

Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Wyatt played the version by Samuel L. Jackson sometime late last night. She isn't even old enough for stories and bathrooms and cups of water, but yes. This. Isn't sleep regression fun?



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Review: Everyone's Reading Bastard

Everyone's Reading Bastard by Nick Hornby

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



"That's what family stories were-amusing accounts of the messes and the fuckups. Take away the love and the laughter, narrate the stories as if the characters had acted with malice and self-absorption, and everybody was in a bleak independent film..."

An amusing short story. I have a soft spot for Hornby.



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Review: The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



"You were doing fine, a familiar voice informed my ear, until that man stepped into your path."

This ended up exceeding my expectations - it's too bad it took me fifteen years to get around to reading it - as I recall getting a copy the end of summer before my last year of university, having just returned from Scotland and house hunting with a week to go before classes. I guess on the rush, it just got put aside.

I thought it was a good exploration of the stifling roles for women and the pressures of academia. As a look at a nervous breakdown, also interesting. It's often compared to Catcher in the Rye and I think it's miles better.



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Review: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



That was just a lot of fun.

Also, I'd like my own Luggage.



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Review: Seen Reading

Seen Reading by Julie Wilson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I loved the short stories and it was interesting to see that a lot of the books being read were Canadian. Coincidence or do Canadians tend to read a lot of their own writers? I'd assumed I'd be able to see the connections between the stories and the descriptions of the readers and I generally couldn't.



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Review: Conduits

Conduits by Jennifer Loring

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Well, that was weird. I'm not sure I entirely get what happened. There were some nice spooky bits.



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Review: Klee Wyck

Klee Wyck by Emily Carr

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



That was really lovely. She describes the scenes well and I pictured what I remember about the forests and sea around Vancouver Island as I read.



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Review: The Little Blue-Eyed Vampire from Hell

The Little Blue-Eyed Vampire from Hell by Richard Ellis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Though occasionally over my head, this was really interesting. I'm ready for Kait's questions about Cephalopods now.



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Review: Holidays on Ice

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This weekend I didn't venture out until Sunday afternoon book club/brunch. We read David Sedaris's Holidays on Ice - I wasn't a huge fan of the book, but the discussion was still interesting.

2014 - reread SantaLand Diaries. Alone it's a four star read for sure. Almost laughed hard enough to knock Kait off the nipple while she was nursing.



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Review: A Vampire's Christmas Carol

A Vampire's Christmas Carol by Cynthia Eden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A Christmas Carol with vampires, demons, shapeshifter a and a guardian angel. And sex. If you're into vamp porn, this one is pretty good.



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Review: Rho Magna, the Laotian War Dragon

Rho Magna, the Laotian War Dragon by Mark Berent

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Technically, there were some issues. Typos, missing commas, some awkward verb tense usage. In a short story, not too hard to ignore. There was a good emotional gut punch to the writing, and though I haven't been to alias, I learned a lot about the Ho Chi Min Trail while I was in Vietnam. There's an excerpt for the novel, Phantom Shadows, which was a bit too much plane talk for me, but the story wasn't bad at all. I'm fairly sure I got this as an Amazon freebie - I'd check out the author further, if another freebie came up.



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Review: All the Time in the World

All the Time in the World by Shiloh Walker

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



This is basically just a sex scene with a few hints of the world of the Grimms. I'm curious enough to read the first of the series, but in no rush.



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Review: Man's Search for Meaning

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The first section on life in the concentration camps was interesting and moving. The second section on logotherapy was a bit less interesting to me, though I generally found it well explained.



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Review: Santa Is Coming to Colorado

Santa Is Coming to Colorado by Steve Smallman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was Kait's first Christmas Eve read. I want to start the tradition of the Christmas Eve box: new pjs for everyone, a book for her, a movie and popcorn, hot chocolate, candy etc to go with it. I don't think we will be in Colorado for too long, so I liked the idea of a local book like this that we can revisit when we tell her stories about when she was a baby here. And as a bonus, the story was cute too.



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